After Rapture
by Majora098
Summary: Rapture was filled with monsters with not a shred of humanity left in their grossly mutated forms, the worst of which are the Big Sisters, according to Jacob's companion Ashley, they were a monstrous mockery of the form Little Sisters like her were supposed to grow into. So when a Big Sister quite literally drops into their midst, they discover just how human monsters can be.
1. Arc 1: Meetings: Ch 1: Introductions

Chapter 1: Itrooductions

Protector Gamma-Zeta wandered aimlessly through the desiccated corpse of her once beautiful city. She sighed as she looked around her at the rusty and decrepit buildings, thinking of the splendid glory she had seen in them as a Little Sister. The difference seemed almost surreal, as if the old version had been an illusion, but that was Impossible, she had seen it after all.

The city was so quiet, and it unnerved her. The city never used to be quiet, even when its only residents were insane creatures, the halls echoed with their footsteps, breathing, and insane gibbering. Now it was as quiet as the ocean outside, though every now and then the slight shuffle and movement of the long sleeping Things that now were the only things alive in Rapture broke the silence.

She winced as the crash of a building across the street spontaneously sounded in the quiet. Coming down in a deafening noise that hurt her sensitive ears, she whirled around looking to see if anything but gravity had caused the collapse. Satisfied with her findings she turned back around to continue her mindless journey.

She was so bored, she could not play with her Little Sisters, because they were gone, and she could not dance with the creatures, because they were asleep. It might have been worth it if they were really sleeping, but they were just pretending to sleep so they wouldn't have to dance with her. It was really frustrating, cause Zeta really liked dancing, and dancing left angels for her Little Sisters to Help. Except her Little Sisters were gone.

Quite honestly she didn't know why she was doing what she was doing, but it made her feel somewhat less empty and purposeless. Unbidden her thoughts again turned to her long dead family, and again the tears stated well in her eyes, she cried a lot recently, she just felt so empty without her Little Sisters.

Her grief turned to anger as she thought of who had taken them away from her, she hated _Him _she hated_ Him_ so much, she had watched, been forced by Mother to watch, as He killed her family, murdering her Little Sisters and her fellow Big Sisters in cold blood. Mother has said that Zeta had to stay alive to report to the Family, that…that was what was the best for the Family, but she still felt guilty for not helping her siblings.

Her rage melted into a confused mess as thoughts turned to Mommy, how Mommy had loved her, yet then she betrayed them for that monster, Zeta _hated_ her, she was a traitor the Family, but she loved her too. Mommy had been the only one who was nice to her besides her sisters, she had been the one to sooth her scary-dreams, to treat her like a normal person, and was the only one to understand her. Why, Why, Why, did she have to have betrayed them, her Family, for her old father, wasn't the Family enough?

She sighed, she would have probably done the same for Mr. Bubbles… No, She Wouldn't Betray The Family, even for her Mr. Bubbles. What Eleanor did was Unthinkable, Unacceptable, and she should be Hated; but yet Zeta could not bring herself to hate the figure she looked up to all her life.

She was a terrible Member of the Family, she still liked a Traitor to the Family, and she was a terrible friend, for she hated one of her best friends. But Eleanor Wasn't Her Friend; She Had Betrayed Zeta, Probably Laughing As She Continued Her Deception Of The Family, As Her Daddy Ripped Through Zeta's Family. But Mommy had been so kind… But She Was A Traitor… yet she was so nice… She Let _Him_…how could she have…But Mother Said…But Mommy was…She Was To Be…But Zeta couldn't. She released a shriek of pure torment as she fell to her knees, these thoughts and others battling in her head, ripping her mind to shreds.

She was brought back rather abruptly to the present by a low rumble, she knew that sound where had she heard that sound, it took her a while to place it. When she remembered, her eyes widened with fear. That was the sound of a Hoard, of about twenty or so grotesque and mutilated pairs of feet becoming louder and louder as more and more of the scary-things awakened from their ADAM induced slumber, combined with insane whispered gibberish that was slowly building into a crazed roar to create a disturbing noise that stuck fear into even one like Zeta. She mentally kicked herself, her shriek had awakened the mindless mass of…things

The first scary-thing approached from around the corner, in the lead because of its skinny doggy-legs were mostly intact, its body was singed and blackened and melted, the reason why became apparent as the pustules covering it burst, the chemical contained in them starting to burn once it met air. Soon it was followed by more equally horrible monsters as they drove with a single minded purpose towards one of the only source of ADAM left in Rapture.

Zeta prepared herself for the upcoming fight, extending her harvester with a satisfying hiss and readying fire in her hands. At least a fight would take her mind off her torments. With a defiant shriek, she charged the Horde, hoping in the back of her mind that maybe she might finally be able to end her horrible, twisted, purposeless life, and she did.

()

As I returned to our current safe house from scavenging, I found to my surprise that Ashley wasn't waiting for me like she usually did. She was normally unable to sleep without something, usually me, to comfort her nightmares. I, as was my nature, began to hope that maybe she was getting over them and for once was sleeping soundly. My hopes were dashed, however, as I came into the bedroom and saw her gazing deadly into the fire.

"Hey Ash," I said as I walked into the room.

She jumped, glowing eyes sweeping wildly around the room before settling on me,

"Oh, it's just you, Jacob." Her voice sounded subdued and saddened.

"What, not happy to see me?" I said with a laugh, a small attempt to cheer up the moody teenager.  
"No, it's…just hard to be happy here."

With a sigh Jacob sat down across the fire from my charge. "What's wrong this time Ash?"

"Nothing"

"Nothing, Really? I wasn't aware that you enjoyed staring into fires, but I could be wrong." I said with a small smirk. "Now seriously, what's wrong?" My face growing concerned again

She looked up at me, her glowing eyes burdened. "You know exactly what."

I looked across the fire to my depressed charge. I really hated it when she was like this, and she was right, I did know exactly why she was like this. Even though it had been almost two years since her Little Sister indoctrination broke, the change had left a horrible scar on her personality.

I pitied her, but I could nothing for her when she was like this, and it was killing me. I knew this mood would pass; they always did, but even then she would never be that same eager and happy little girl, if a bit shy and subdued, that she once was. I scooted over next to her and put my arm around her, trying to bring at least some comfort to my young companion.

"Come on, it isn't that bad,"

"Yes, yes it is" was her only response, her long blond hair hiding her face from me.

Noticing that the few working lights were dimming, signifying night was coming, I told her, "Go to bed, Ash. You'll feel better tomorrow."

She said it so softy that I couldn't hear her the first time "What did you say?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked, looking up at me, her eyes nervous yet slightly hopeful. With that question Jacob realized just how bad she must be, she hadn't asked to sleep with me for years, ever since she got old enough that she realized that it was becoming awkward for me. For her to overcome that boundary meant that she was suffering far more then she was letting on.

"Yeah, sure" Her eyes, quite literally, brightening at this she slowly rose and together they went over to the bed.

"Are you sure your fine with this Jacob?" she asked as she laid down with her back to me "I know this a bit awkward for you" despite her obvious efforts her voice still sounded a bit pleading.

I sighed at the sixteen year old behind me. "As long as it helps you sleep well, I'm okay with it." I felt her relax at that, and she promptly fell asleep in my reassuring presence, leaving me to brood on how she had change so much in the past few years.

When I had first found her, we both had been close to giving up hope, from what I could tell from the various stories she told me of her past life she had been the first one of the girls that had been bonded with the new protectors, the Big Sisters, she in particular had been bonded to th second Big Sister Beta

Much to everyone's surprise however the Beta became more annoyed with her bonds then anything and went out of her way to, if not flat abuse Ashley, then to scare the living daylights out of her. Ashley had somehow managed to get away from her "Big Sister", and, even more miraculously, managed to stay away by hiding in an abandoned furnace.

That's where I had found her, covered head to toe in ash, hence my nickname for her. She had immediately latched onto me as a father figure, a concept that, while I was not unused to, even though I was only 15, annoyed me, as it distracted me from my far more important, at least at the time, mission. Eventually, after she had followed me for three days, I finally let the starving girl come near me.

The first few months were horrible, as the Family hunted her like a pack of hounds. More than once I had been tempted to abandon her and start my search for Elizabeth again. It had been a year since I had seen any sign of her wandering Rapture, looking for her "angels", and I was very worried for my childhood friend. Ashley was only getting in the way of that. However, despite the temptation I couldn't just abandon the poor girl, even for Lizzie.

My thoughts then of coursed turned to the girl who was once my best friend, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt. I had vowed to her that I would find her after she had been taken for me. We both had only been eight then, I never even got to tell her I thought she was pretty. It had taken a year before I made any progress, it had been a complete coincidence; I had just stumbled upon her, her and her Big Daddy. I had felt such pain at that; I had let her become a Little Sister, something I spent years of my life keeping her from.

What was even worse is that she didn't even remember me. The girl who had, quite literally, known me every second of her life did not recognize me. It was heartbreaking, and from then on, I hated everyone who had anything to do with the Sisters, everyone who had a hand in taking my best friend away from me.

Still, at least she wasn't unapproachable, her "Daddy" had not seen a little boy as a threat, so I could still play with her; I even occasionally managed to distract her from gathering from her "angels". She may not have remembered me before her conversion, but at least she had known me after it. She, either by coincidence or some part of her remembering me, she began calling me by her old nickname for me, Lion.

Even that somewhat happy time was to end. After Elizabeth had turned fourteen, she had just disappeared. I had gotten so desperate I had even spliced, just a bit, not enough to have any bad effects, just two tonics of my own creation. With my new abilities I had set out to spy on the Family, which was the faction that currently had control of the Sisters. I was good at it too, I had learned a lot about many things, especially the Little Sisters. But I never found even a trace of Elizabeth.

Then I had found Ashley, and basically had to stop my search to care for the little girl who was forced into my care. I don't regret not leaving her, but even still I couldn't help but feel like had had abandoned Lizzie. Eventually though, the Family had stopped looking for Ashley in force, and I was able to do a bit more searching for my old friend.

However after about a year after the Family had stopped hunting her, when she was around fourteen, Ashley began having these horrible fits, it took me a week before I finally understood what was wrong with her. Her Little Sister indoctrination was breaking down, painfully.

The fits were truly horrible things to watch her live through. She would spend most of a day on the floor in the fetal position, crying and whimpering as the world flashed from a beautiful paradise to the rusty god forsaken place it truly was, her innocent mind unable and unwilling to accept the horrible new reality being thrust upon her.

Basically raising Ashley had always been a challenge, and at first I had resented it, but slowly I came to love the annoyingly cheery little girl, and the blunt and dryly humorous teenager she was now. Despite all the hardships she had brought upon me, some of which was far more than she realized, I loved her like daughter and I would do anything for her.

()

_A/N well this is my first fanfiction so I would love to hear how y'all think it went. I struggled for a while on who to convey when Zeta is having conditioned thoughts, after a while I settled on using capital letters, so that what those where if you were wondering. Please review, I would really appreciate it. _


	2. Chapter 2: A Dreaded Encounter

Chapter 2: A Dreaded Encounter

Ashley and I were rudely awoken the next morning by the horribly familiar screech of a Big Sister. I bit back the urge to curse, Ashley had some _very_ bad memories associated with that. Groaning softly to myself, I turned to my terrified companion, but could only watch in pity as Ashley degenerated into her usual state upon hearing that sound, curling up into a ball with her hand her ears, shaking like a leaf.

"They-they're c-c-coming f-for me-e, again!" her words were shaking as much as her body was.

I put on my most reassuring voice and responded, "Ashley, it's okay, there is no Family for the Sister to take you back to."

"NO! She's c-coming for m-me, I j-just k-know it-t." She was now actively crying now "The-they always are!"

"Ashley, calm down, it's been at least 5 years since you escaped, the Sisters have probably have forgotten you by now." Ashley, however, had by this point almost completely lost touch with reality, descending sharply into the memories of a living nightmare, sobbingly muttering things along the lines of , "leave me alone", and "I'm sorry, please don't take me back"

I felt sympathy well up in me as I looked at the broken girl before me. I cursed my luck that the Big Sister had to have come near us today, while Ashley was still recovering from her bout of depression, she normally didn't react this badly in our occasional encounters with that ear grating noise.

I sighed, ready to begin the gentle task of weaning her back into reality.

()

That task took the better part of an hour to complete. I was holding her gently in my lap, my arms around her, when she finally pulled herself together. She turned her tearstained face up towards me, and I as I watched it became bright red as she blushed. I randomly noticed that the combination of her softly, yellow glowing tears tracks, combined with her blushing made her face a rather amusing orange, and I had to hold back a laugh , "I sorry for making you sit though that" she finally spoke,

"It's fine."

"No really, I'm sixteen now, I shouldn't throw a tantrum just because I heard a sound."

"Don't think like that Ash, your response is perfectly justified."

"No, it…"  
I cut her off and took a dead serious tone, "Listen Ashley, you have suffered truly horrifying things in your life, and that sound was at the heart of it, you are perfectly justified, you are not any weaker because of this, do you understand?"

"Yeah," She still didn't sound all that convinced, " but I'm still sorry that you have to deal with it"

I rested my chin on her head. "It's far better than the alternative."

"And what's that?"

"You having to suffer though it alone." She went silent after that, apparently deep in thought.

After letting the silence hang for a while before I spoke again, "I love you Ashley, don't ever forget that." To my surprise she stiffened, "In what way?" she asked, her voice tentative.

Her question surprised me, and not quite understanding what she was getting at, I answered "Like a daughter, I guess."

She let out a sigh of relief "Good." She stated as she snuggled back up against me.

"Good?"  
"Yes, good, because that's the way I love you too, and if it had been the other way, things would have gotten awkward." I couldn't help but laugh, that was the Ashley that I knew and loved, blunter than a frying pan.

We probably would have stayed there in relative peace for quite a while, but since this is Rapture, that peace was shattered before three minutes had passed. Some strange sound and lights came from down the hallway of the apartments we were currently using, shooting both of us to our feet. We looked at each other with horror when we realized what it was, a Vita-Chamber. About a second after that realization, the sound of metal hitting floor clanged out from the same direction. We both ran to the door, but Ashley instantly backpedaled back in, eyes wide with horror, for, lying on the ground, was a Big Sister.

()

Zeta hit the floor, hard. Where was she? How was she still awake? The last thing she remembered was her…dancing with the creatures and then…pain and…blackness, and then…then the flashy lights. She hurt, she hurt all over. She was faintly aware of voices near her, but she hurt too much to really care. The voices were getting fainter anyway, which was good, cause she felt very…very…tired.

()

What was that noise? It as faint, she could barely hear it. It took her a moment to figure out it, it was a voice! That was interesting; she hadn't heard a voice in a while. She might investigate later, but right now the voice was annoying, Zeta was trying to sleep. Then she remembered that voices say things. She wouldn't have cared but it was so persistent, what was it saying? It was touching her now, it shouldn't be doing that, so she restrained its hands,

"Hey, Watch it, I'm trying to help!" the voice said, finally coherent.

In a flash Zeta was up and had the voice pinned against the wall, her other hand trying to rub the sleep from her eyes, before blearily realizing she was still in her helmet.

She looked curiously at the creature in her grasp, it looked surprisingly normal, for a creature, and it only felt a little bit of ADAM. It had brown hair, unkempt but trimmed, and pale skin and most surprisingly, no visible deformities. How could it have no deformities, ADAM always made deformities. Maybe it hid them under its top cloth? She checked, none there, bottom? Ah there was one; no wait, that was supposed to be there.

Zeta looked at the creature's face, that looked normal, except it bright red color and its deep, dark brown eyes that she just wanted to stare into, how could those be normal. Now she thoroughly intrigued, why was the creature so normal? Creatures aren't supposed to be normal, their supposed to be ugly and crooked and evil, it didn't even smell angry, how was that? Creatures always smelt angry, even the ones in the Family. She then remembered an even more interesting thing, so she poked the creature in its tummy.

"OW! Why did you do that?" It choked out

Zeta's face lit up behind her visor and her light shifted to a soft amber color, it had talked, and it even sounded good! She hadn't heard something talk in so long, even more so with good sounding talk. How lucky, maybe she could keep it as a pet! She continued to look happily upon her lucky new discovery, humming pleasantly, when it talked again.

"Now that I have apparently satisfied your curiosity, will you please put me down?"

But Zeta's mind had already moved on. She could feel a large concentration of ADAM. Only her Sisters had that much ADAM, but none of her Sisters should be anywhere near here. So what was it? She began looking around her, the previous object of her attention lying on the floor, forgotten. It wasn't a Big Sister then it had to be… but that was impossible, they had all gone. But what else could it be?

She lifted up the creature. It had to know where the Little Sister was, it was probably hunting her, because that's all creatures seem to do. So she asked it, _Sister? _Her only response was a confused look, so she tried again. She raised her hand in front of its face and asked again, slower, _Sister?_ Once again she was met an infuriatingly confused look.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" It asked. She sighed heavily; the creature obviously couldn't understand her. Now she had to mime it out, and that was humiliating. Now how could she get Sister across to the obviously dumb creature?

"Let go of my friend!" Something off to her left yelled, before Zeta was knocked off her feet by a surprisingly powerful fireball. Giving off a fierce growl, Zeta leapt to her feet and whirled to face her soon-to-be dance partner, hand already alight with burning fire. The sight that met her surprised even her.

It was a Little Sister, it had to be. Nothing else felt like that much ADAM, but she looked older than any Little Sister should be, she should be a Big Sister by now. The sudden arrival of such long dead hope brought about a massive wave of emotions in short succession. There was a Little Sister, alive! How could that happen? Why had she attacked her? And most importantly, what was the girl so scared of, because she would make it sleep for her.

()

I sighed as I observed the situation. I knew from previous interactions with Big Sisters that the best thing to do was to keep yourself and the Sister calm, because they were surprisingly human when they were calm. Anger them, however, and things spiraled out of control very quickly. And now Ashley had gone and angered her, and while he doubted that the Big Sister would hurt her, Ashley would never believe that and already she was shaking like a leaf, no doubt imagining all the pain that her action will have brought upon her, and with that in mind she turned and ran. Or at least she meant to, however, she immediately tripped over a piece of rubble and fell on onto her side.

To my surprise the Big Sister looked as stunned as I was. Then I remembered that she probably hadn't seen one of her Little Sisters in years, not since Subject Delta had saved them all. I watched in anticipation as the Big Sister slowly made her way towards Ashley; visor softly glowing an almost pink red, and arms clasped behind her back, a sign of peace in Rapture.

Despite the Big Sister's attempts at appearing non-threatening, it was doomed to failure, Ashley's fear was too great, with every step the Big Sister took, Ashley crawled back one, until she came to the inevitable wall at the end of the hallway. By now the Sister seemed very confused, she had stopped as well when Ashley hit the wall and had her head tilted sideways.

Slowly she lowered herself it to a crouch and, shockingly, she reached up and removed her helmet. I had never, never seen a Big Sister remove her helmet, not when they were off duty, not when they were interacting with each other, not ever. I was pretty sure that the Family's scientists always had told them they were hideous underneath them, and that was motivation enough for the unstable teenagers. I couldn't help but think to myself how very wrong that lie was, this Big Sister at least was anything but ugly, if a bit unkempt. Her hair, though obscuringly dirty, had obviously once been a beautiful color, and bits of that color would peak out from underneath the dirtier layers. Her skin was quite literally white, except for the slight green twinge that all Sisters had, and her eyes, despite Ashley description of them always being a hellish red, were a soft yellow, and were currently glowing benevolently.

The Sister hummed a soothing little 6 note tune, but this just seemed to set Ashley off even further.

"No, I'm not going to fall for your tricks" she shouted, then she looked over at me, "JACOB, HELP!" and to my surprise the Big Sister looked at me as well, a similar request on _her_ face.

I stared at the two females, deciding how exactly I was going to go about doing that.

()

Why was her Little Sister scared of her? Didn't she know she wanted to help? She even wouldn't listen to the lullaby, and that always calmed down Little Sisters down.

"JACOB, HELP!"

What was a jacob? Zeta followed her Sister gaze and discovered her Sister was looking at her previous discovery, so that was what it was, a "Jacob". It seemed rather silly for her Little Sister to think that was its name, since creatures don't have names. But if so why did she name it? Little Sisters aren't supposed to interact with creatures. But still it didn't seem that insane and her Little Sister seemed familiar with it, so maybe it knew why her Sister was so confused that she didn't recognize her Big Sister. She strode over the creature and tugged it onto its feet. She pointed demandingly at her Sister.

"What about her?"

Zeta huffed, and then pointed at her Sister again then to herself. Hopefully that was clear enough.

It thought about it for a bit, before answering a bit hesitantly "She is scared of Big Sisters."

Zeta whirled around to look at her Sister, how could she be scared of Big Sisters, they were always nice to their cute little charges. But that meant…that...her Little Sister, whom she loved more than anything…was scared of _her_. What had Zeta done? Why was her Little Sister scared of her? She hadn't done anything to scare her, had she? Zeta must have, why else would her Little Sister be scared of her. But what had she done, what did she do to fail her last Sister? She was on the verge of tears now, so she looked at the creature in front of her, maybe it knew what she had done.

Zeta pointed to herself than to her poor Sister that she had scared, and then back to herself. She waited for its answer. She noted that it smelt confused, probably about her. How could it be confused? Her Sister didn't love her! Crying was perfectly acceptable in this situation!

It finally responded "Are you blaming yourself for this" Of course she was blaming herself for this! It was obviously her fault.

"Look it's not you…"

She didn't hear him, as she was already approaching her justifiably frightened sister. It was probably taking off her mask that scared her Sister, Zeta's face was Hideous, it was a stupid mistake and now her last Sister hated her for it. Zeta tried for one last appeal, slowly stretching out her hand to try to help her sister up, but she just looked at Zeta with hate filled eyes, and with steely voice just said, "Your stupid fake tears aren't fooling me, just go away, just go away and never come back!"

Zeta face became the epitome of despair as those words sunk in; she slowly withdrew her shaking hand, as the tears came rushing down her face. She had failed her Sister, her _last Little Sister_! And now that Sister hated her. If nothing else she would follow her last request, Why not? She had nothing to left to be awake for. And with that she headed for the stairs to the left of her last sister, and began climbing up.

()

I watched the Big Sister slowly climb the stairway up, the very definition of hopelessness, and I wondered where she could possibly think she was going. My gaze turned in horror to the girl I thought I knew as she sat there, looking, for some reason, pleased with herself

"What the heck was that!?"

She actually looked surprised. "What?"

"Why did you do that?"

"I got her to go away."

"No, you _ruined_ her!" I had to fight to keep my voice down "Do you have any how badly you just hurt her!"

"So?"

"So!" I was getting decidedly louder "Morality issues aside, she could have helped us."

"She would have taken me away" she answered, as if it explained everything.

"To what, Ashley. The Family is dead, has been dead for years! She is a _Protector, _and you denied her that." She suddenly looked a bit more uncertain

An even more disturbing possibility dawned on me, "What if that had been Elizabeth!"

The glow of her eyes harshened, "Elizabeth is dead, Jacob."

That got me, "And how do you know that" I roared

"You mean even if she survived becoming a Big Sister, that she somehow was one of the few Big Sisters that escaped Delta, and then one of even fewer that escaped the hordes of unleashed splicers."

I had to admit those were bad odds, but still I couldn't give up on her. "This is beside the point anyway, the real problem is you just mercilessly ripped away the only purpose of unstable teenager, without any regret, I thought I raised you better that!" I watch as Ashley face grew surprised at that and she looked about to say something, but I was roll, "She just wanted to help Ashley, that's all she wanted, to help the last Little Sister, and you took that from her, along with everything else, she might even…" My eyes grew wide with horror. "She went upstairs, Ashley" I let that sink in, "To the roof."

And horrifyingly right on cue we heard a resounding crash as something metal crashed into the street outside. We both rushed to the nearest window and saw her body lying on the ground below, head bent at an unnerving angle, unmoving.

Ashley backed away slowly, looking sick, but I had to drill in the point.

"You did that, Ashley. That's on your head."

I watch as her luminous tears started to flow down her checks, and I walked up and hugged her. She started sobbing in my shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Jacob, I'm so sorry." I patted her reassuringly

And then we heard the sound of the Vita-chamber.

()

Those flashing lights, again. She was still alive? How? She had made sure to land on her neck, not even her slug could fix that. She looked behind her an understood. She was standing in front of a life-tube. She _hated_ those things, they had let Delta stay awake when her Sisters didn't, and now when she wanted to sleep, and it wouldn't let her. She _hated _those things, she was useless, she had failed her Little Sister, she didn't want to stay awake, and now she couldn't help it. No matter what those stupid tubes would make her stay awake. She felt the tears start to run down her face again, she didn't care, she didn't care about anything. Why couldn't she just _DIE_!

She remembered something about the life tubes. What was it again? She remembered one of the Lab Coats explaining to her…something about them….Starvation! They wouldn't revive her if she died of starvation! She got up and went into one of the rooms and sat down, after all starvation takes a long time.

_A/N I'm going to try and consistently update on Sundays, on which I will post all the chapters I will have completed that week, most likely this will normally be only one, but I might occasionally be able to post two if I'm being productive that week. As you might have noticed by the title I am dividing this story into what I have arbitrarily deemed arcs. The entire story is going to be divided into 3 parts each of which are going to be divided into 3 arcs; each arc will have 5 chapters. In-between each arc there will be a single transition chapter which will detail an important plot point that generally will be important in the next arc. I hope y'all don't mind too much, I mainly came up with this system to help plan out the story in detail, and for the sense of goals that I generally require to do anything. Please follow if you're interested in the story, it will get less depressing from here, I assure you, and review to tell me your thoughts, constructive criticism is heavily encouraged, and have a blessed day. _


	3. Chapter 3: Intervention

_Disclaimer: I do not own nor pretend to own Bioshock or any of it memorabilia, they belong to 2K._

_A/N DO you know how I said I would update on Sunday with however many chapter I had written that week, well I lied. I seemed to have underestimated my ability to write quickly. I won't say definitively that updating on Wednesdays is a thing until I'm sure I can keep up, but it is currently looking very likely_

Chapter 3: Intervention

The poor girl, I thought to myself. I could hear her crying from our room, the Big Sister. Ashley refused to let me near her, she said she would be violent in this state, and despite her prejudice I think she's probably right. It was clear that even if she wasn't nearly as bad as Ashley always portrayed the Sisters to be, she was still unstable, recent events attested to that. It was completely possible that in her mixed up head, she might portray me as the villain, as Ashley kept telling me.

But still it was against my nature, as someone who has spent his entire life looking after little girls, to ignore crying. I never could stand hearing Elizabeth or Ashley cry, a fact that I know both of them had exploited at various times, and similarly it was killing me to hear the broken sobs of the girl. It had only been only been a day since the Big Sister had first sat down and she had done almost nothing but cry since then, and it was driving me up the wall that I couldn't help her. This was made even worse by the fact that I knew that the Gamma series Big Sister were programmed to be stoic in public, which meant that her grief was so great as to be able to break that programming.

What was even worse was the fact I know that she was going to be there for a long time. Sisters didn't dehydrate; anytime they came close their bodies would adapt to absorb the water in the air around them; of which there is an extensive amount of in Rapture. I had found that out after we had an unlucky streak with finding water, Ashley refused any of it, saying that I needed it and she didn't, I thought she was crazy, but turns out she wasn't. She still only rarely actually drinks water. It would also take longer than normal for the Big Sister to starve, about a month instead of two weeks. If we tried to move away, the distraught teenager would just follow along behind them, bound to Ashley by her programming like a dog on a leash.

I laid there in my bed, Ashley's soft breathing coming from across the room and the persistent crying echoing from the hall and I knew I wouldn't be sleeping tonight. I spent several minutes debating whether or not to go before I finally sat up and, walking over to our stack of canned foods, took one from the top and continued on to the room the Big Sister currently inhabited, wondering all the way: was this a good idea?

()

Zeta cried, she had been crying for a while now, though she wasn't sure for how long. All she knew was that her only Little Sister didn't love her and that thought alone was enough to make her want to cry till her hunger made her go to sleep forever. She was alone, completely and utterly alone, even her fascinating find had already belonged to her Little Sister, which probably meant that it hated her too.

Wait.

None of her other Little Sisters never even came close to hating her, and none of her other Little Sisters had a creature as a companion, so that meant… that it was the creature. That creature made her Little Sister hate her, it must have tricked her into hating her! Zeta hated that creature! After all it made sense, creatures were evil, so it must be tricking her Little Sister. She would have to make it go to sleep. Her eyes widened and a smile grew on her face, then her Little Sister would love her again! She had to put it to sleep and then everything would be better. Surprisingly though she felt a little sad to have to make it sleep forever, something about it was…... she couldn't quite put her figure on it and she couldn't figure out why.

Then Zeta heard footstep and her head shot up. Maybe it was her Little Sister! Maybe it was her Little Sister coming to talk, and she could explain the creature's deception and they could run away and let the creature live. Her hopes were dashed, however as the creature stepped into the doorway. It had come here to gloat! Why else would it be here. It had come here to _gloat_ about how it had turned away her Sister! She would kill it before it even spoke a word!

Before it even had completely opened its mouth she had it pinned against the wall next to the doorway, her retracted harvester pushed against its heart. She heard something clatter onto the floor, but she ignored it, for she had the cause of all her troubles in her grasp and all it would take would be but a thought and it would be dead.

But no.

She looked at the helpless creature in her grip, why couldn't she do it! Why could she not kill the creature! It was the cause of all her troubles! She was about do it when she made the mistake of looking into its eyes. She froze, there was something about those eyes, what was it? She continued to stare into its deep brown eyes, what about those eyes made her stop? Despite herself, she felt her rage slowly subside, her blood-red light slowly fading back to yellow, to be replaced with a growing confusion. Why could this creature influence her so much, was it doing this on purpose? Had this what it had done to her Sister? But no, she knew that feeling, and it wasn't that kind of feeling. She kept gazing into those eyes, she didn't want to look away, couldn't look away until she figured them out, they were so f…so what? It was starting to irritate her that she couldn't put her finger out what those eyes made her feel.

She lifted her right hand from its heart to its face and laid it on its cheek as she stepped forward to completely close the gap between them. It smelt like J…like something. It was the same feeling that its fixating eyes made her feel, and yet she could still not quite place it. The feeling was starting to make her mind hurt, so she gave up on trying to figure it out, contenting herself with just staring into the beautiful eyes.

She began to see the flaws in her plan. She could smell her Sister all over the creature, it had been with her awhile and she obviously liked it. If Zeta had killed it then her Sister would be even madder at her. Besides she herself was staring to like the alluring creature, she just _had_ to figure those eyes out.

However, she managed to tear herself away from the mystery of the creature's eyes to look at what had fallen to the floor. It was a can of food, meat it looked like, she liked meat. Zeta looked back her captive, a questioning look on her face, while she kicked the can to draw his attention. She had to kick the can quite a lot, as it seemed as captivated with her as she was with it. But finally it looked at the can with a jolt, and seemed to get the message.

"Why did I bring the can?" Zeta nodded "As a peace offering, I guess. You've crying all day, and I came to see if I could help."

Now that didn't make since, it had turned her Little Sister against her, but now it seemed concerned for her. It wasn't lying, lying is obvious, she would have noticed. So that meant that it was concerned for her, but that meant that… it didn't hate her, and if it didn't hate her…then why would it turn her Little Sister against her, but then that meant…

That meant that her only Little Sister hated her, on her own.

Tears started forming in her eyes again as the overwhelming and horrible truth smashed upon her, once again snuffing out her last hope. And she could do nothing but cry. She hugged the creature and started to sob into its shoulder…

…into the shoulder of the creature with the familiar eyes.

()

The Big Sister cried into my shoulder for about half an hour before she finally seemed to run out of tears, and I must admit it had been rather unnerving having the fiercest predator in Rapture sobbing on my shoulder. This was made even more so by the confusingly quick progression of events since I entered the room. When I first walked in she was sitting with her knees up against her chest, and then before I had even blinked twice she had me against the wall, her eyes blood-red and the veins on her face glowing a similar color, with her harvester against my heart ready to kill.

But she hadn't, she had just stood there for what seemed like eternity staring with a confused look into my eyes, at first I had found a bit unnerving, until she stepped closer, the hand that had just a few seconds ago been poised for a kill was now reaching out and gently stroking my cheek, and her staring had become less intense and more thoughtful. I had found the look she had given me to quite endearing and I had slowly lost focus of everything but her. I had realized with a bit of a shock that, despite the fact that I was over six feet tall, she was looking directly into my eyes. We had stood like that for what must have been five minutes just staring at each other, before I had finally noticed that she was trying to draw my attention to the can on the floor. When I had told why I brought it she had just broke down.

And so we had just stood there for the better part of an hour. I really could do so very little for her situation, even I could never convince Ashley to give up her dislike for the Big Sisters. So I just stood there, giving the only comfort I could to the broken girl in my arms

After she seemed to calm down a bit, I slowly eased her to the floor. I sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulder. She was staring deadly into the space over her knees, which she had once again drawn up to her torso. We just sat there, not talking, not doing anything really.

After a couple minutes I couldn't stand the silence anymore, "So…"

The Sister jumped, she than looked at me with a surprised expression

"What, did you expect me to leave?" sheepishly she nodded, looking down to cover her head with her hair "Well, I'm not." Her head sprung up again, and she gave me the tiniest little bittersweet smile, and I was hooked; I would do anything to see her smile again.

Her eyes flicked uncertainly to my arm and then shifted to her shoulder where the attached hand lay. I remembered her previous reaction when I had touched her.

"Sorry." I apologized, starting to remove my arm. I was shocked when, faster than my eye could follow, her hand shot out and grabbed mine, pulling it down to its previous position, clutching it defensively as if I would try to move it again.

"Not sorry, then." She smiled, a bit sheepishly, and I felt the first triumph of would become my lifetime goal. I was even more surprised when she leaned into me, snuggling up to me as if she had known me forever. We both sat like that, thinking on this new development

Very suddenly she dislodged herself from my arms and sat up. She turned and looked up at me pleadingly, as if I could solve all her troubles, and when she pointed at the room where Ashley and I normally slept I knew that was exactly what she expected me to do.

"Ashley?" I asked, and, noting her uncomprehending glance, added, "That's her name." She hummed in acknowledgement, and then nodded.

"You want me to help you get her to like you?" She nodded fiercely. I bit my lip, not wanting to make any promises about that near impossible task, but she must have this point been consciously trying to be look cute, because her pleading stare became near irresistible. I just had to give in.

"I'll see what I can do." I said hesitantly. The effect was instantaneous, and she gave me her first true smile. All of her other little ones were nothing but a prelude to the truly addicting quality of that smile. Her already pretty face became gorgeous as her entire face lit up as she grinned openly at me, her eyes shining so fiercely that I was momentarily blinded by their sudden light in the dark room. She threw her arms around me in a quick embrace and then wiggled her way back under my arm, before laying her head on my shoulder, seemingly content to just stare at me. It occurred to me that I didn't even know the girls name.

"What's your name" I spoke all the sudden. Her calm face became confused for a couple seconds before her eyes literally flashed with I knew to be recognition, and she proudly held up her hand to display the two Greek letters on its back.

"Gamma-Zeta" I read. She nodded, looking especially proud of it. "Okay…but if you don't mind my asking, what was your name before you became a Big Sister?" I felt a small amount of hope fill up in me, she certainly seemed familiar enough with me. She just gave a blank look, so I clarified, "Back when you were a Little Sister, what was your name?" Her face became thoughtful, than confused, than worried and she shook her head, having the look of someone who just realized that they had lost something important. She looked at me with an expression of phenomenal worry plastered onto her face, pointing at her head as if she expected me to know why she couldn't remember her own name.

I bit my lip, I knew exactly why she couldn't, but I doubt she would be able to handle the information, So I did my best to break it to her. "Maybe it had to do with you becoming a Big Sister, all the ADAM, you know." She nodded, seeming to accept the answer, and thankful not pressing it any further. She then returned to her original position, calm eyes staring up at me, a slight smile on her face.

Her head suddenly shot up again and she pointed at her hand and then me; that one took me a moment before I realized that she was pointing to the hand with her designation on it, and I realized that she was asking me for _my _name.

"My name?" I asked, wanting clarification, she nodded and looked at me expectantly, "Well, my name is Jacob." When I had said my name, her face had grown slightly bemused, as if she was trying to remember something, before her head twitched violently, and my face got whipped with half a head of dirt encased hair. She then precede as if nothing had happened and for the third time laid her head on my shoulder, and once again her yellow eyes dimmed as she calmed down and just stared at me

()

I woke up as the lights began flickering on again, signifying "morning". I felt movement to my right and expecting to find the Big Sister waking up, I instead found her in the exact same position as she was last night, eyes wide open and still staring at me as if I was her messiah, which, with my promise last night, I guess I basically was.

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked. She shook her head as if her lack of sleeping was a completely normal thing to do. Noticing the time I made to get up, but found to my surprise that the Big Sister was clutching my arm. I looked down at her and she shook her head violently, her eyed scared and perhaps a bit hurt.

"Look, I have to get back to my room, if Ashley wakes up and she sees that I gone she'll start to worry, and you wouldn't want your Little Sister to worry, would you?" I explained. She sighed and nodded but still refused to release her death grip on my arm. She pointed to herself, than me, and then the other room.

Thinking I knew what she meant, I responded, "She would react even less favorably if she woke up to a Big Sister." Seeing her eyes start to dim in hopelessness, I quickly added, "I should be able to convince her you're not a threat, but it will take time." She seemed to accept this, but still refused to release my arm. And then I understood why she still was hanging on.

"I'll be back later today, I promise." She looked up at me, a bit suspiciously, and then the most childish thing I could think of: She held out her pinky.

Laughing to myself I crossed my pinkie with hers, "I pinky promise." That seemed to satisfy her, and she let go of my arm.

Zeta smiled to herself as she watched her newfound friend leave. She couldn't believe it, she had a friend! A nice and sweet and funny friend! Just like all the stories the Little Sisters that came from the surface would tell her about. He had stayed with her when he didn't need to, he had treated her with respect, which she didn't deserve And what was best of all was that he wouldn't abandon her, like her Family had.

He wouldn't abandon her, He had promised!

()

The lights had been dimmed for over three hours , and he still wasn't here He might just be late, and yes, he had come all the other days, but what if he was just leading Zeta on. What if he had lied, and wasn't coming back and he and the Little Sister had run away laughing, Like Mommy Had. What if he did want to come but the Little Sister who hated her wouldn't let him? What if… was that footsteps? It was! He was coming!

But what if it wasn't him, maybe it was the Little Sister; she didn't like the idea of talking with her, her Little Sister hated her. The sobriety of that fact dulled her excitement of seeing her new friend. But he would help with that, he had helped with that last night, and the night before that, and the night three nights ago, so he could help with it again. He was coming, and she let her excitement flare up once again. He was in the hall now, and with each footstep her anticipation grew.

When he came to the doorway, she practically pounced on him, before stopping short, was hugging acceptable with friends? She hadn't had a friend before, just Sisters, did friends mind hugging? They had hugged last night, but she was so vulnerable last night he had probably had let that slide. What if he became offended if she hugged him? She didn't want to offend him, then he would hate her too, and she wouldn't be able to stand both her Little Sister and her friend hating her.

"Uh, hello to…you…too" Her friend said sounding a bit confused. Zeta realized she had been just standing there during her internal debate. Now she looked like an idiot in front of her new friend. She felt her face grow warm and she felt an unknown emotion well up in her, it felt like fear except less sharp. What was this?! What was she thinking, now he thought of her funny. She felt tears well up in eyes, she had made fool of herself, and now he was going to laugh at her. She cursed her ignorance on how to interact with people, she felt so lost.

To her horror he seemed to notice her growing turmoil, he reached up and put a gentle hand onto her shoulder, "Hey, is everything alright? You're blushing, did I embarrass you? He asked, his face sympathetic. What? Zeta shook her head, he hadn't done anything. She was the one making herself look stupid. She felt her face get even warmer, any second now he was going to start laughing at her. She didn't want him to laugh at her, and she was so distressed by the possibility that her built-up tears started to spill out, NO! bad tears, bad tears, bad tears, now he was going to think she was weak as well as stupid. She only had a friend for a day and she had already ruined it, she was a failure, a complete and utter…..

She was interrupted form her self-decimating thoughts by the target of her anxiety when he suddenly pulled her into a comforting hug, "Whatever's bothering you, I'll help." NO! She struggled against him, she couldn't take his help, she had to prove to him that she was strong, or else he would abandon her because she was weak!

He held her at arm's length, "Tell me what's wrong; is this about Ashley?" Zeta shook her head slowly, uncertain if she should tell him what truly was bothering her, he'd probably think she was being silly. "Then what's wrong" It took her awhile for her to remember how to say it, but finally she managed to mouth _I…am…we…ak _before hanging her head in shame; letting her hair hang down over her face. He was going to laugh at her now, or worse, abound her, oh why did he make her admit it, why couldn't he let her suffer in peace.

His reaction was unexpected, to say the least, "Weak!" he exclaimed, his voice legitimately surprised, "You of all people are anything but weak Zeta. Her head rose slightly and she peaked though the curtain of hair to stare at him in bafflement, of course she was weak! She could even go a day anymore without crying. Even he made her nervous, and to be honest he wasn't that intimidating.

"If you were weak, Zeta, then you wouldn't be here right now, you'd be wandering Rapture as insane as a Big Daddy from all the isolation, or worse: dead. I certainly couldn't do that, and since you did, how can you be weak." She guessed he had a point.

As he brushed away her hair she couldn't help but smile, and he smiled in return. _Mean…that?_ His response was instantaneous "Of course." Zeta smile grew into an open grin, as she proceed to finish the pounce she had stared earlier, completely leaving the floor in the process, and nearly knocking Jacob to the floor. She stared into her friends alluring eyes that she had still yet to figure out, and stayed there until her friend finally spoke up

"Okay, you're getting heavy, let's go sit on the couch." And so he carried her over to the corner shaped couch that sat against the far wall of the room. Zeta had to admit she had enjoyed him carrying her a bit more than what made sense, but she didn't care. When he set her down, she decided to sit somewhere different than normal. Normally they would lie on the couch with their heads meeting in the angle, but today Zeta decided that she wanted to lie down on the back on the sofa above the side Jacob had picked, and she instantly decided she liked it better up here, she could see her friend much better from her vantage point.

He looked up at her with playful suspicion, "And why would take a position above me I wonder." She simply shrugged; a perhaps too innocent smile her face. They sat there talking; well, Jacob talked, Zeta mimed, for a while before Jacob drifted off to sleep. Zeta looked down on her friend with wonder, and a bit of envy. He looked so peaceful when he slept; it was an odd thing to her: peace and sleep. They rarely interacted with Big Sisters, and even now she felt the effect of her self-enforced insomnia. On a whim she reached down and grabbed his hand, and again she was tempted to fall asleep, maybe he could share some of his sleep-peace. But no, those two would never intermix in her again, her scary-dreams were too persistent and the only way to escape from them was to stay awake. She sighed.

After all, she hadn't slept in 2 years, what harm could come from one more day.

()

_A/N For clarification the () marks a scene change where the time and possibly the perspective changes. The - marks a direct perspective change that picks up immediately where the last part left off, and sometimes a bit before, if I want to overlay the scene with a different perspective. Also 4,224 words, wow that was a long chapter, and I had intended to have quite a bit more with this chapter. Please favorite if you like this story, follow if want to see more, and review if you have some constructive criticism, or all three, which is preferable, and have a blessed day._


	4. Chapter 4: Family Bonding

_Disclaimer; I do not own or pretend to own Bioshock, just my characters_

Chapter 4: Family Bonding

I couldn't believe I had let Father be influenced like this; I just had thought his visits with the Big Sister were because of his overriding kindness, but no! She had been influencing him this whole time! And I had missed it! Now that I looked back there had been signs, He thought about _her_ more then he should have and his pestering was more persistent than normal.

I was still perplexed on how that bi… that bi… argh… that _blank_ (ugh that's so humiliating, of _all_ the things of my Little Sisterhood to have remained, it _HAD _to be the profanity restriction!) managed to hide the compulsion, even now, when it was obviously in full effect, I couldn't even begin to a trace of it. That scared me; a mind that powerful and clever was not going to be enjoyable to hang around for the remainder of my sanity.

I knew exactly what was going to happen, the second that I came through that door: the Sister was going to rocket up and snatch me and leave Father in the dust, heartbroken in two ways (He actually thought that _monster _loved him). Then she would begin to remold me back into a perfect Little Sister, and with a mind obviously as strong as hers I would be back poking corpse for their blood within a week, urggh. I couldn't let that happen, for both of our sakes.

"Jacob" I pleaded "_Why_ are you doing this!?" I put specific emphasis on why, since questioning the motive was the easiest way to break a compulsion.

He stopped and turned towards me, not however releasing my arm. His response was surprisingly well versed, "I am doing this out of kindness; your stubbornness is hurting her more than you could possibly ever imagine without seeing it for yourself, and so we're going to do exactly that." His tone was strict and authoritative, which I thought to be rather unfair. Father very well knew I couldn't not obey when he used that voice. He turned and walked off, letting go of my arm to prove that he knew that all too well, and against my will my feet followed. He looked over his shoulder at me and said, "Think of it as punishment for "forgetting" to mention that you regularly invade my privacy." I winced at that, Father still was really angry at that, I didn't see why he was angry, it wasn't as if I could turn it off, and he didn't exactly try to hide his thoughts.

As we slowly approached the door to my inevitable doom, Father stopped and looked back at me, "Just a fair warning, she is rather…" He stopped, searching for the word. In the short gap I started thinking of all the words that he might say: _irritable, violent, unstable, lustful, deadly, aggressive… _"Affectionate" He finally said, a small smile playing across his lips. I blinked, wasn't expecting that one.

Without any further ado, he opened the door, "Zeta, I brought someone with me this time." He called softly, a strange tenderness in his voice, I fumed at that, he was only supposed to use that voice when looking at me, not some….gah…_blank_ (blankity-blank blank Little Sister programming) that raped his mind. And worst of all he was smiling,_ smiling_; as he led me to my doom! As I entered the room I was only able to catch a glace of "Zeta" sitting on the far side of the room before she was up and barreling towards us. I closed my eyes, waiting for impact. I instead heard an exclamation and a thud; I quickly opened my eyes, fearing the worst.

Instead I found the best.

The sight before me was unbelievable, to say the least. The Big Sister was on top of Jacob, not having just stabbed him with her harvester, grinning sadistically over her kill; but hugging him, _hugging him! _And had leapt on him with such force that he had fallen backwards into the wall, where she sat, straddling him while she nuzzled his neck affectionately, humming her happiness. Eventually she withdrew, still humming, and just looked him in the eyes; a positively radiant smile gracing her lips and her eyes giving off the happiest glow imaginable.

A quick look at her thoughts, well thought, confirmed that she hadn't even noticed me yet, and that this tidal wave of affection was her standard greeting. After staring at each other for somewhere around five minutes Father smiled adoringly at the girl in his arm, and, making eye contact with me, spoke up, "Zeta, I've brought someone along this time." Her head snapped up and, almost timidly, swiveled around to look at me. She did something with her hands, it looked somewhat similar to the Daddy sign language, but I still did not recognize it, and I shook my head.

She had by now completely turned around and was now sitting with her back against Father, holding one of his hands and looking distinctly…nervous oddly enough, I couldn't think of any reason why she'd be nervous, it wasn't as I was the half-crazed superhuman in a metal suit with attached giant needle. When she saw me shake my head she huffed in frustration, and started trying to think of other ways to communicate. "Gestures?" Father suggested quietly into the Sister's ear, she shook her head, "To broad?" She nodded.

I looked at Jacob, "I'll handle this, don't interfere" I said pointing at my head. He nodded, and so I tentatively reached out with my mind to mentally poke her.

The reaction was immediate, her head, which had been tilted back against Father's shoulder in thought, jerked up, and her eyes visibly brightened and the thought was shouted at me even though we were mentally touching _"Little Sister can mind-speak?!" _

"_Yes" _I thought to her, _"and I'm not your little sister"_

She let out a pained little noise at that, like I had just kicked a kitten, and her eyes dimmed considerably, _"Does Little Sister still hate Zeta?"_ The childishness of her thought struck me, along with its…off-ness, her consciousness was skewed, but I could quite figure out how.

"_Cause if so Zeta is very sorry, she didn't mean to scare her Little Sister. Please stop hating her, it was an accident and she is very, very sorry."_ She was nervously wringing Father's hand, and looking expectantly at me, her pupils brighter than the rest of her eyes, a sign of hope.

I couldn't tell which was baffling me more, the fact that she was apologizing, or the fact that she was thinking in third person, which is certainly not normal. I was beginning to see what Father meant when he went on about her not completely understanding the world around her. _"I am _not_ a Little Sister" _I replied, and she began audibly whimpering, I instantly felt guilty about the reprimand, but I wanted to make it clear to her that I had left that life behind.

"_Please, Please Little Sister, please, you're her last Little Sister, she can't stand continuing without her Little Sisters, she needs you, she needs you, please." _Tears were brimming in her eyes now, and I saw she was obviously about to crack again. I knew the Big Sisters to be fierce protectors, Father and I had seen enough the newer Sisters to know that they would stop at nothing to protect Little Sisters, they fought fiercer then even Beta, which was saying something. For whatever reason they had a diminished healing factor, but that made them all the better of warriors, since they lacked that sense of invincibility. Yet when I looked at the Big Sister sitting in front of me, looking at me with sorrowful yet slightly hopeful eyes, I didn't see that fierce warrior, I saw a broken girl, lonely beyond belief.

"_I forgive you for scaring me Zeta, that was something beyond your control, but I do not trust you yet." _I watched her eyes flare with hope only to die down again when I continued my sentence.

_Little Sister does not trust her Big Sister? Why? Big Sisters were made to help little ones."_

"_Not always" _With the thought I sent an image of a Beta, hoping she might get it.

I watched in fascination as her mind slowly put it together, after musing on the symbol for a while she remembered my name, and then it took her a bit more time to put two and two together, she looked at me, eyes alight with curiosity, _"Little Sister is the runaway…" _I then watch in horror as one of the "looked doors" in her mind (of which there were quite a few, come to think of it) burst open and flood her consciousness with its hollow thoughts, commanding her to take immediately kill everything near me and return me to the Family. I saw her start to extend her harvester and turned around before she looked in to Fathers eyes and caught herself.

She turned back to me, obviously shaken, _"but there is no more Family, they're all gone." _Her face became distraught, and she had almost completely forgotten about how close she came to killing Father. _"Zeta's failed another duty Little Sister, she's so sorry she has failed you again, she deserves your hate."_ She cast her eyes downward, and she noticed her half extended harvester.

Her eyes grew in terror, and she looked shakily back toward me, _"Zeta just tried to kill Jacob, Why did she just try to kill Jacob, Jacob is her friend. She really liked Jacob, but he had been…a threat to Little Sister. But that is silly, Jacob loves Little Sister as much as she does." _Her eyes locked on mine. _"Jacob is the only one nice to Zeta; he is not a threat, so why did she think he was? Why did she try to kill him Little Sister, WHY DID SHE TRY AND…" _

Her face suddenly became disturbingly blank for one so emotional, and I noticed that she retracted the needle. It then became confused as she looked back at me, _"What were they talking about again?" _

I suddenly became a lot more worried about letting her stay with us.

"_How I forgave you." _

"_Oh," _She suddenly realized the implications that and her eyes brightened, _"those that mean that Little Sister loves me again!"_

"_No." _ Even I thought that harshly blunt.

"_Oh." _The sheer dejectedness that came with that word almost brought tears to my eyes and I quickly backpedaled.

"_I don't hate you anymore Zeta, but I don't like the idea of trusting you, you're not the most stable of individuals, and you might hurt on of us, on purpose or not. _

She cocked her head, a confused look on her face, _"Zeta would do nothing to hurt her Little Sister or Zeta's friend." _I noticed that her internal definition of _friend_ far more intimate than normal. _"She would never do anything bad to Jacob" _she stopped then remembered something "_or her Little Sister."_

"_Really, you must keep in mind you're a protector, and insane, you might see some innocent tap as harm to me and attack Jacob." _I admit that I was provoking her at this point; I wanted to see what she would do.

She started to physically growl, and her eyes were dangerously close to red, and her response came in a mental roar so loud I'm surprised Jacob didn't hear any of it, "_HOW DARE YOU, HOW DARE YOU LITTLE SISTER! Zeta did not, has not and will not! She has not done anything to hurt Jacob, She would never do anything to hurt Jacob. Jacob is her friend, he was there when Zeta was lonely because her Little Sister hates her; he does not judge her, like her Little Sister does; He did not abandon her like everyone else, even her own Family. Jacob is the only person left for her, SHE! WOULD! NOT! HARM! JACOB!" _

I had to admit she was convicted, and given her previous display of willpower in that regard, I was convinced enough to allow a pass on that. Her feelings towards him, as much as I loathed admitting it, were real, but that did not mean that Father's were and that brought us to the next issue. While Zeta obviously didn't have any conscious telepathic abilities, it was possible, and even probable, that she had a subconscious influence, and in anything that could possibly be worse, because then she might start molding him, unintentionally but still, into how she sees him, and her off-kilter perspective would mean that would not be a good thing. There had to be a way of working it out.

A horrible idea crept in my mind, but I pushed it aside until I discovered no other options. If I could convince her that Father and I were leaving, her panic would probably be so severe to force subconscious use of any mind-altering ability to force one or both of us to stay, and if I was able to convince Father to follow me with it, then that proves he hasn't been influenced already. It was the perfect plan, except it involved causing serious pain to Zeta, and I have already done enough of that, but I had to try it.

This time I spoke aloud, my voice steely "Well Jacob, I think we should leave, permanently."

Of course Father spoke up, "Ashley!..." I zipped into his mind _"Hush up."_

"_Ashley?"_

"_Nope it's the tooth fairy; I need you to play along."_

"_What! N…"_

"_Shut up and hear me out, it the only ways I can think of to check for subconscious influence, if one of us suddenly receives the overwhelming compulsion to stay with her, then she can influence us, if not then we give her three minutes before she "convinces" me and we can keep her."_

"_That is really heartless Ashley. Why do we even need to find out if she can 'Subconsciously influence' us or whatever?"_

I showed him a memory of one of Alpha's mind slaves, _"Now imagine that, but done inexpertly, without direction, and by a girl who such a mutilated sense of identity that she thinks in the third person."_

"_Oh. It's still going to hurt to see her in such pain."_

"_I'll just tell her that you were the one to convince me not to go, I'm sure she'll give you something good for that…" _

"_I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand that enough to go that far."_

Despite that, I could feel his resolve weakening with that particular thought bouncing around, and finally it snapped, _"Fine. Do it."_

"_Give her half a minute before beginning to rise." _

One of the best things about telepathic conversation is that it's fast if you want it to be, that exchange was in the space of six seconds for example, and I returned my attention back to Zeta before she finished the third word in her plea.

"_..n't go Little Sister, please don't go, Zeta needs you, She needs you, and Jacob would be really sad if she left, very sad, and she doesn't like it when Jacob is sad, cause it would make her even more sad. I'm sorry I yelled at you, please don't go. _

I thought she was giving it all she got, but when she felt Father get up, she went absolutely hysterical.

"_What is Zeta's friend doing, is he going to help her convince Little Sister to stay, She could use the help." _She watched in horror as Jacob went to stand beside me.

"_What… WHAT… Jacob! NO! Don't leave her! Don't leave her! Why are you leaving her?! She needs you, she needs you. You're her friend, she needs you, she needs you to help when her Little Sister is gone; she needs you to be with her when she is lonely, she needs you. PLEASE come back Jacob. Please come back._

"_Turn." _I told him.

Tears opening flowing, Zeta somehow kicked it up a notch, and seemed to forget the target of her begging could not hear her _"NO, NO, JACOB PLEASE, Jacob please come to her she needs him, without him she is lost, ZETA NEEDS JACOB, COME BACK; PLEASE COME BACK." _Which did I feel more like a _blank_ for ignoring, her horrible racking sobs, or her hysterical pleas?

"_Walk, it'll be over soon, one way or another." _I told Father, and together we made for the door.

"_NO! NO! ZETA NEEDS HIM, SHE NEEDS HER FRIEND. PLEASE COME BACK, PLEASE COME BACK, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-NO! COME BACK, _COME BACK_."_ I felt her distress realign something in her head, if it was coming it was going to now or never.

"_I cannot express my desire for you, come back my Jacob, please come back to me, I need you, I need you. Please don't leave me" _I stopped out of sheer shock; there had been no compulsion, only a simple message, in first person. One look at Father confirmed he heard it too.

"_Well?" _I heard Father think.  
_"She passed, she is safe"_

"_Oh thank God, I couldn't stand that for one more second."_

"_Not so fast"_

"_Why? We got what you wanted to know."_

"_So we can set you up as the hero of course"_

"_Fine"_

As he looked into at her grey eyes, she mouthed at him _Plea…se…do…not…lea…ve…me_. In a very sudden surge of brilliance on his part, he mouthed back _I'll try, let me work on her. _

Throughout the entirety of our "argument" her eyes did not leave him once.

"_Story straight?"_

"_Yep"_

"_Then let's go make a happy woman."_

I turned to her an announced aloud "Well, we have decided to let you stay with us, on one condition."

Her reply was immediate, _"Anything, Anything, Anything as long as Zeta can be with Jacob." _I frowned internally at that, I had hoped that her transition into first person was permanent, but apparently not.

"You stop calling me Little Sister, it's annoying.

She tilted her head _"But you are her Little Sister"  
"No I am not, Sister"_ I thought, putting every possible emphasis on the lack of _big_, _"For one I'm not little". _

She laughed at that, it was an odd laugh, almost more like grunting, though I noticed it lacked its famed mechanical quality, and one her radiant smiles began to grow on her face, _"Thank you Lit-, Sister, Thank you for letting her stay."_

"_Don't thank me, Jacob was the one who convinced me."_

I smiled as I heard the small thud of Zeta and Jacob hitting the wall, Father, that girl can move fast.

"_Don't thank me, Jacob was the one who convinced me."_ Her eyes widened, Jacob made her Sister stay!

_thud_

She was hugging Jacob, he hadn't left her! She was so happy! Hugging wasn't enough, but what else was there? Suddenly she got a very good idea. _"Sister!"_

"_Yes"_

"_Could you make it so that Zeta and Jacob can mind-speak?"_

"_Possibly, But I would have to be there as well."_

"_So?" _

"_I would have thought you might have wanted to talk to him in private."_

"_Why?"_

"_Never mind, now let's see."_

Zeta felt strange, as if she was being pulled, and it wasn't long before she felt a third mind enter their conversation.

"_Can Jacob hear her?"_

"_Yes I can." _Sister had done it! She could talk with Jacob! Why was she suddenly so nervous?

"_uh, Hi Jacob!"_

"_Hello Zeta." _He laughed gently as he mind-said it, she looked into his eyes. She could finally talk to her friend; she could finally say what she's always wanted to say to him.

"_Your eyes are pretty!"_ She felt her Sister lose tract of the conversation, opting to explore Zeta's head, She didn't mind, maybe her Sister could help her with things.

"_Uh…Thanks?" _He sounded bemused, why was he? They were pretty, He should know that.

"_And you smell nice, _

"_Really? Cause I haven't showered in a couple of weeks."_

But Zeta was on a role now, _"And you look nice, and you sound nice, and you are nice, and you smart, and your funny, and you are the greatest friend ever!" _To emphasize her point she started hugging him again and nuzzled her cheek against his shoulder

"_Friend?" _He seemed surprised, and his thoughts said that wasn't what he considered her.

She shot from her former position to look at him in his again, her expression hurt, _"You don't consider Zeta a friend?"_

"_What? No. Uh, Zeta not what I mea…"_

"_She knew it! Zeta isn't good enough to be Jacob's friend, Jacob is perfect and Zeta is not. She isn't good enough, that's why Jacob wanted to leave her, because she doesn't deserve him. Please, please help me; Zeta needs to be good enough for Jacob, she can't live without her friend, she will do anything to become good enough, anything at all." _She waited expectantly for his answer, eager to know what she could do to make herself worthy of Jacob

Zeta felt her Sister withdraw slightly from Zeta's mind to watch Jacob's reply intently.

"_Zeta, you are perfectly fine the way you are, I was just surprised by you use of the word friend, I simply thought it was too small a word to fit our relationship."_

Sister delved into Zeta's mind again, thinking something along the lines of "boring"

"_Then why did you want to leave me?" _

He thought about that for a while, _"I didn't want to leave you, but Ashley was going to. She is like a daughter to me, and I had sworn I'd protect her, and protecting must come first, surely you understand that." _

Zeta nodded, she did understand. Her light suddenly brightened, _"So Zeta is good enough for you!"_

"_You are perfect for me." _Zeta's light was brilliant, and she gave Jacob a wholehearted smile. She rested her forehead against his, and looked directly in his eyes, _"Thank you, bestest friend." _

For some reason he chuckled, _"I guess that works, it the thought that counts." _

They stood there like that, slowly mingling their minds until suddenly her Sister came barreling out of the depths of Zeta's mind, shouting, _"Out!, get out and cut connection, NOW! _Reluctantly Zeta complied, disentangling her mind from his. Less than a second after they were done, her mind slammed shut, locking out any contact. She reeled from the sudden lack of commune, and would have fallen if Jacob had not been holding her.  
They heard a soft thud and both looked over to see Sister lying on the floor, sleeping. Was she… no she was still breathing, it was just temporary.

Jacob spoke up, "We must have tired her out." Zeta just nodded. She was sad now, the only way for her to communicate with her bestest friend was asleep. Oh well, at least he was still here.

"Well I'd better get her to bed then." He began to move towards her. NO! He was leaving her already! She grabbed his arm and clutched it to her, shaking her head.

"You remember you're coming with us right?" Oh yeah, but she didn't let go, she wanted that promise.

He smiled, "How 'bout this Zeta, since promising you that I will come back is a bit pointless now, I promise you that I will never leave you."

….

….

….

Why was she crying, she was the happiest she has ever been in her life.

"Zeta? Are you all right?"

Claim him; Claim him; claim-him-claim-him-claim-him-claim-him-claim-him- CLAIM HIM RIGHT NOW! Her hands shot out and grabbed him by his top cloth and pulled his lips directly onto hers. He stiffened for a moment before his hands slipped around her waist, pressing her even closer; oh, she was in Utopia.

Eventually, they pulled away from each other. She rested her forehead on his, and mouthed, _mine now._

()

_A/N. I feel like this chapter was somewhat below my normal standards, I just felt pressured for some reason and I don't work well under that kind of stress, and I was not able to get it to my new editor (and person I promised a beta copy, sorry BTW) without delaying the upload (screw you too, Time zones…and slight laziness). But anyway, yay they kissed, I was wondering about how I was going to get them to do that, considering Zeta realistically would understand that concept, until I came up with the wonderfully perfect idea of claiming, don't worry I explain it in next chapter. Also it is revealed that all this time the Zeta segments have been in first person, It's a mind screw ain't it. If you like this work, please favorite, if you want to see more, please follow, and if you have Constructive Criticism_, _please review. Preferably you'll do all three. Have a bless'd day, y'all._


	5. Chapter 5: An Issue of Sleep and Self

_Disclaimer: I do not own, nor pretend to own Bioshock or anything related, that'd be stupid._

Chapter 5: An Issue of Sleep and Self.

I sat there as Ashley continued to laugh hysterically; I had just finished recounting what had happened between me and Zeta while she was unconscious, and she had yet to stop laughing. Quite honestly I didn't really see what was so funny; I had thought the scene quite romantic. Finally she stopped laughing, and looked at Zeta, who was leaning into me with my arm around her, she was feeling as sheepish as I was, "You are the only female that still resembles anything near human for several miles, and you still saw fit to claim him."

She blushed slightly, before nodding; she then scooted even closer and wrapped an arm around me, to make it clear why she had done this. Ashley seemed to find this even more hilarious, taking more than a minute to finally calm down enough to elaborate on the reason for her laughter, "So you wanted _him_ to know."

I spoke up then, "I'm sorry, but what do you mean by claiming."

Zeta gave me look as if I was stupid and secretly became slightly nervous, and Ashley, having just managed to subdue the last fit, once again burst into it, "Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. Well then, allow me to educate you. When a Little Sisters wanted to keep something as her own, she would kiss it; the other sisters would be able to smell to saliva and know who it belong to. It was an easy and simple way of keeping tabs on what was and wasn't yours in a room which contained twenty other girls at any one time."

'So your saying is that when she kissed me, she was marking me as her own."

"Yep."

I looked down at the beautiful girl in sitting next to me and smiled, "Well, I guess that made it even better."

Zeta smiled brilliantly, she was relieved that I had looked favorably upon her impromptu decision. She cocked her head, and looking over at Ashley, gestured to her, than held her arm up at the elbow and then quickly rotated it down, imitating something falling. Ashley, after thinking for a few seconds, responded, "Are you asking why I fainted?"

Zeta nodded, eyes brightening with her curiosity. Ashley hesitated, looking over at me. I felt her reaching into my head, _"How should I do this?" _

"_Do what?"_

"_Tell her, it involves her conditioning rather heavily."_

"_What's so bad about that?"_

"_Everything, letting her know of it so abruptly would activate some major failsafes. _

"_Failsafes?"_

"_Programing put in place to prevent her from permanently finding out about her indoctrination."_

"_And what do you mean by major?"_

"_Kill the person responsible, and then forget everything about them."_

"_She wouldn't kill me."_

"_She wouldn't be, in her mind she'd be killing a great threat to her person, and with the resulting memory wipe would mean that she would keep thinking that."_

"_Oh. Couldn't you just tell her, since all Big Sisters were heavily conditioned not to harm their Little Sisters after the complete failure of the Alpha models."_

"_I was looking through her consciousness."_

"_Isn't that an invasion of her privacy?" _

"_She knew I was there and did nothing to stop me, and I needed something to do while you two were mind _blanking_."_

"_Blanking?"_

"_Shut it, I can't help it."_

I mentally sighed _"So what actually happened?"_

"_I was digging through her mind, when your little mind mingling set off a failsafe meant to keep out telepathic communications, I was too deep and wasn't able to get completely out before her mind sealed shut, shunting me back into my own head with the force to kill a small animal, thus I was knocked unconscious."_

"_And you want my help in this because…?"_

"_You know her better than I do, what would make a convincing lie for her."_

I felt horrible for knowing it, but it was incredibly easy to partially lie to Zeta, and reluctantly I told Ashley how to do it. _"Just tell her something simple, she's curious but she doesn't quite get the concept of partial truths, don't out front lie though, she can spot that a mile away."_

"_Makes since, those traits were probably intentional." _With that she pulled out of my head, and I was once again amazed by the rapid transition of thought, it had only been a couple seconds. Zeta, who had of course been unaware of any intercourse between me and Ashley, still stared intently at her "sister."

I had to admit, Ashley was a smooth liar, a fact I wasn't exactly thrilled about. "I don't really remember all that much of why I fainted, but it had something to do with me finding something you unconsciously didn't want me to see and panicking, you put a telepathic barrier, which catapulted me back into my own mind."

Zeta nodded, then thinking of something, pointed at her head, a questioning look on her face. Ashley responded, "You've subconsciously adapted to prevent my intrusion, I can't connect with you." I thought the last part a bit of a flimsy story, so I moved my hand and started to lightly scratch a small circle around the base of Zeta's neck. Almost instantly her eyes glazed in pleasure, and she started to let out a deep purr, quickly forgetting everything around her except the hand on her neck.

"How did you learn how to do that?" Ashley inquired; quirking an eyebrow as Zeta started actually moaning, arching her neck to try and get closer to the miraculous touch.

"Anything under the leather of her armor is so unused to living touch that with her already strong senses it's easy to get her to a state like this." I moved my hand form her neck, earning a whimper from Zeta, and slipped it into her ungloved hand to demonstrate my point, using my thumb to rub a circle on the back of her hand, once again drawing out that contend purr from the lovely lady. "See"

Ashley looked at me with a slight smirk, evidently thinking her question was going to draw out some hilariously embarrassing story, "You didn't say how you found out about it in the first place." I hesitated, how had I known that? I didn't remember it coming up in any of our meetings, and I would have definitely noted any technique that could have been used to calm the sometimes overemotional teenager.

Ashley's smirk grew even bigger, "Oh, this must be a good story if you're hesitating so much; go on, just tell it. I'll get from you one way or another."

"I honestly don't know where I learned it, it just seems like….I don't know….it's…it's like it's…just there." My face mirrored my confusion.

Ashley's smirk changed it to a puzzled expression, before suddenly asking "What is she feeling right now?"

"Desperate yet nervous," I replied quickly, "How did I know that?"

"Now look at her and tell me what she feeling."

I did as I was told, and chuckled as I read her emotions, "You really want me to start scratching your neck again, don't you." Zeta nodded vigorous, and obligingly I moved my hand back to her neck, and once again she became completely oblivious to the world.

"How would you describe how you know her emotions?" Ashley asked, now thoroughly intrigued by this new development.

"It isn't in her expressions or body language, of course since I wasn't looking at her the first time; it was just…obvious, as if it were my own, but sort of…detached, I mean they're clearly her own emotions, and I don't feel them as if I was experiencing them."

"This is normally a common side effect of bonding, but of course you two aren't bonded, bonding requires specifically produced ADAM from the slug of one Sister being directly injected into the blood of another living thing, it's not exactly something that could happen by accident, or even unknowingly, not to mention that neither of you actually display any further signs of having developed a bond."

We continued to discuss and developed theories and explanations for the odd connection between me and Zeta for about half an hour. I keep forgetting that just because she rarely uses it does not mean that Ashley is unintelligent, she has a sharp mind, and when presented with an interesting problem, she cannot let go. We sometimes even debated, my favorite was the time we had come across an old smuggled in bible, we had debated for hours about is there is even a possibility of a creator. Occasionally Zeta would pull together enough of her rational mind to contribute something, before sinking back down into the apparently massive sea of pleasure that was me scratching her neck. We would have continued our discussion for longer, but Zeta suddenly decided she was bored.

My only warning was a sudden change from contentment to want, before I was lying down on the bed we'd been sitting on the edge of, with Zeta sitting on my stomach wanting to repay me for every second of pleasure I had just administered to her neck. The look in her eyes was intoxicating, and before long we were the only people in our own little world, she leaned closer and rested her hands on a point about an inch above my skin, I felt an unseen force creep across my chest and down my sides, it movement surprisingly relaxing, before forcing its way between my back and the bed. When the two halves connected beneath me the entire thing began to undulate, giving me a full body massage. It felt really good. I smelled something just inside the range of my ability to sense it, it smelled really sweet, and gave almost as much pleasure to my mind as her telekinetic ripples were giving to my torso. And just to make I wasn't capable of a single thought, she bent down even further and brought her lips to mine. Eventually she stopped with the kissing and we just looked at each other's eyes. Everything felt good, even the place where her leg braces dug into my side felt good in an acupuncturey sort of way. I think Ashley was saying something, but I honestly didn't care all that much, I should remember to feel guilty about that later, but right now Zeta eyes were just so attractive, a thought I know she shared.

I wasn't exactly in a state to tell time, but at some point the lights in the hallway started to flicker off, and Zeta descended to lay beside me, she was curious as to how her payback felt, "Wonderful, Zeta, absolutely wonderful." She smiled brilliantly and scooted closer. I heard the sound of Ashley breathing, she must have fallen asleep, I felt strangely relied at that, at least I hadn't been making an potentially embarrassing noises, if I had Ashley would have still been up to mock me about them. As Zeta slipped under my arm, I realized I had never actually slept with her right beside me, I also realized that the various bit and bobs of her armor were rather sharp.

Gently I asked her, "Would you mind removing your armor, bestest friend," smirking inwardly at my use of the childish nickname she had created for your relationship. I had expected her to be hesitant about the idea, but her reaction was on a whole different level.

She vaulted from the bed, absolutely terrified, turning to stare at me in uncomprehending eyes as a panicked memory enveloped her. She began violently shaking her head, glowing tears leaking through her tightly shut eyes, as her hands involuntarily began to shakily undo the straps of her armor.

Ashley, sensing her sister distress, snapped awake and of course, being Ashley, immediately misunderstood the situation, or perhaps she understood better than me, "What the _HECK_ did you do to her!"

She leapt out of the bed, Tricks! Lies! He just wanted to get her to remove her armor! They always did! She didn't want to! Whenever she had to take off her armor They hurt her! They would poke her and prod her and inject her with things that hurt and did experiments on her in ways that hurt and touch her in ways that were wrong, like she wasn't even human! And they would laugh! He was just like Them! Like the ones who pretend to be nice to her until they were alone and they made her hurt between her legs! And then she wouldn't even remember to make them dance with her! They laughed at her to!

She felt her hands start to move towards her straps, readily betraying her to Them, just like they always did. He was going to use her and then leave, just like They always did. She cried, she had actually liked him, but he was just like all of Those that she can't remember. She shut her eyes, she would not give Them the satisfaction of making her watch as They used her, not this time.

Why! Why did her life have to have so many forgotten torments, she could remember, remember everything They did to her, and all the things Doctor had made her do to him, and she started sobbing as she remember all the horrible and mean things They had made her do, and as she remembered the two most horrible of them all. Oh Grace, and poor, poor G-Gamma, she was so, so very sorry, Mother, sick, evil Mother, had made her! She remembered all the things that they made her forget, she could see why Mommy and B-Epsilon had left them, even for a monster, which she realized was another illusion, _He _had been saving them, and had always tried to spare her Sisters, that's way she had been made to…, oh G-Gamma she was so sorry! But she would then she would forget it all again, and yet her hands still obediently opened her armor.

"Grab her hands!" NO! No-no-no-no NO! They were one of Those who enjoyed restraining her more than with just binds of servitude, who laughed at her complete helplessness, she would not allow it, but her hands disobeyed her once again. But the hands that grabbed hers were gentle and kind, not rough and unforgiving. They did not force her hands above her head, but instead held them, helping her jail the unruly limbs from finishing their horrible task.

"Come back to us Zeta, come on back." The voice was gentle, and worried, not like Theirs, but like Jacob's. She hesitantly opened her eyes, horribly afraid that she'd find the scary emotion that caused Them to use her in the ways they did marring the features of the face she had loved. As she opened them she was relived to find and feel and smell only concern, concern for her glowing through him for her to feel and being expelled out of his pores for her to smell and etched across his beautiful face for her to see, and it comforted her like nothing else could ever do.

She came across another realization, she loved him, Oh by Mother, no…not by Mother, she was hateful and evil, she loved her Jacob, and They had made her not understand, and that made her hate Them more than anything, They were, even still, after They had gone, denying her this wonderful feeling that coursed through her as she stared into the eyes of the one she knew loved her too. She would hold onto everything, every horrible painful memory, to keep her knowledge of this feeling. She would give anything, but it was not to be.

A sharp pain filled her head, blotting out all other thoughts, she stumbled, but her Jacob caught her. Oh thank Mother she had such an amazing bestest friend like her Jacob. She smiled at him sheepishly, she was sorry that she had panicked, but his question had reminded her of…something.

"It's okay, you don't have to take off your armor if you don't want to." No, it was okay, her initial reaction had just been panic, she would happily remove her armor if that was what Jacob wanted; her hands went to start unbelting her straps. This reminded her of another time, one she nearly couldn't remember for some reason, and after she had removed her armor something…pleasurable had followed…maybe that other person had done the Neck Thing to.

Jacob's hands stopped hers, and he looked at her funny. He felt confused, and then he realized something, and then he became really sad. She didn't want him to be sad, she would gladly take off her armor if it made him happy; once again her hands tried to start unbuckling the straps, but her Jacob's grip wouldn't let her. "No, Zeta…don't do that," he said rather quickly "you can just take off some of the sharper bits, okay." She nodded, kneeling down to start unbolting the leg braces…

()

Zeta sat with her back against the post of the bed, staring intently at the form of her sleeping Jacob, absently her hand moved to the foot that lied next to her, gently massaging it though the covers. She longed for the peaceful rest that he displayed, it had been so long since she had let her eyes close in rest, and even longer since she had rested peacefully. Oh how she wanted nothing more than to snuggle up in his safe arms and finally rest, but she couldn't sleep, her scary-dreams were just too horrible and she would feel bad if she broke her Jacob from this peaceful state. She had to not sleep.

She noticed that she could not hear the sound of her Sister's deep breathing above her, maybe she was awake as well. She had originally thought the idea of a bed atop a bed very strange, but when she had asked her Jacob about it, he had just said that some people enjoy sleeping high. She had to agree with that; she had loved to sleep in the rafters above the streets…back when she slept, before _He _showed up, before she had been forced to watch so many so her Sisters get killed mercilessly, poor G-Gamma, she still remembered the drill hole in her defenseless flesh, her body still in a protective huddle. No, she wouldn't think about her, it made her too sad and guilty, think instead about why Sister isn't sleeping.

As silently as she could she hoisted herself up onto her Sister's bed, and even though she could not see her eyes she knew her Sister was awake. Her Sister's eyes' glow shined and bounced off the low ceiling, giving an almost halo-like affect around her Sister's head. Hearing Zeta, she raised her head, "Hello Zeta, you up too?" she asked sound really sad. Zeta pulled herself completely unto the bed and crawled over to lie beside her Sister and hugged her, she didn't like her being sad, especially when she was already sad herself. She heard her whisper a quick 'thank you' as Zeta left the embrace

"Why are you up, Sister?" Zeta just stared at the celling, hoping that her Sister would get the message, "Insomniac?" Zeta let out a confused grunt. "That's somebody who can't fall asleep." Zeta raised her hand and wobbled it in a 'kind of' gesture. "So you don't want to sleep." Zeta nodded. "Are the Nightmares that bad?" Zeta was surprised at the accuracy of her guess. "You know Fath- uh… Jacob would help you with that." Zeta shook her head, she didn't want to disturb him.

"Let me tell you something, I was the bonded pair of one of the four of the first Big Sister, they were prototypes, and bad ones at that, all of them were sick twisted beings who took great joy in the pain of others, including me. I lived with these devils in the suits of girls for over 4 months, and during those months I saw the absolute worst things you could possible ever do to another living thing, in more ways than one. Bodies and blood and both pain and pleasure, foolish men and women falling into their trap of a beautiful face and then having their minds become so screwed up that were willingly raped again and again. Gamma's collection of the bodies she had shown the "glory of pain" to. The only one who was ever remotely kind to me was Delta, but she never protected me from the others, though at least that was for reason beyond her control, the only thing close to a highlight had been when Delta had found a mate, Brother, but then they both were killed, and I was left defenseless to the horrible pain that Beta brought upon me, just because she could. These horrors most certainly leaked into my dreams, and I had the most terrible nightmares after Father had found me, but he protected me from them, until they became nothing more than memories, that occasion still haunt me. And you know the best part, half the time, he was sleeping."

Zeta thought about this new development. If she could sleep with him and not disturb him…

"You see, even before he had met me, Jacob had had another companion, a girl about a year younger than him named Elizabeth, they were the best of friends." Zeta growled without realizing it, she hated the idea of him being close with another girl, after all he was hers. "Well they had known each other for most of their life, what did you expect? Anyway, their families lived in the same apartment suite, and he was there when she was born. As I said, they grew up together, and together they had watched all four of their parents get gunned down on New Year's Eve, 1958, they were only five." Zeta whimpered, her poor Jacob. "So they did what came naturally to them, they ran away together. They were of course both traumatized the event, but Jacob would always take the time to comfort her, despite his own nightmares, he had of course become very good at it." She stopped talking, thinking for a few seconds before starting again, "Elizabeth was taken by a splicer to become a Little Sister when she was eight, Jacob knows she survived until she was fourteen, at which point she was taken into the Big Sister project, where she was to become a Gamma model, like yourself." She sighed, "No remember very little of your time as a Little Sister correct?" Zeta nodded, "Jacob seems to keep the notion that you might be Elizabeth, but we have no way of proving it or not, do you remember anything, at all that would disprove this?" Zeta might have known Jacob before; come to think of it…no, no The Figure was a figment of her imagination. She shook her head, she had no prof either way. "Then the mystery continues."

"Go on then Sister get some rest." Zeta blinked, she could sleep and not disturb Jacob. Silently she climbed down to the bottom bed and lithely slipped into her Jacob's arms. "Listen for the humming" She heard her Sister whisper down to her. Before she could even really try and stop herself, she was asleep

()

_Zeta was chained to a wall, but she was surrounded by her Little Sisters, so she did not care, she could still hold them and protect them, and look into their adorable faces, and that was all that mattere /_

He_ appeared and whenever his massive metal bulk touched one of her Little Sister they would disappear/_

_Her chains were too tight, too short, she couldn't help the little ones she loved/_

_Nothing stopped _him_, nothing at all, but she couldn't even try/_

_One of her Sister showed up and she fought _Him_, but her own chain was encumbering her/_

_He had broken her chain, but instead of showing _Him_ the fullness of her wrath she stopped fighting, Zeta felt the chain around her arm move/_

_Her Sister was dead, _He_ must have killed her, _He_ must have/_

He_ continued on, making her Little Sister disappear with each step, then _She_ appear, but she did not fight _him,_ but hugged _him_ and together they continued make her Little Sisters disappear/_

They_ reached her Mommy and she Went away with them, taking Mother as well/_

_Alone, she was all alone. Nothing was left for her; she was alone, alone, alone, alone, ALONE!/_

_She heard humming, humming from somewhere away from here/_

_Her Chains were looser, and longer and she was able to reach to humming/_

_The Figure sat by a fire humming his song like he always did, making her feel all better, just like her always did/_

_She was in his arms "I am here, little puppy, I am here, you have found me again." She smiled; she had never been able to touch the Figure before. _

When Zeta awoke the next morning, Jacob was still holding her, and still humming in his sleep.

_A/N A deep chapter, with a lot of hints to future stuff, We find out more about all three of the main characters, and their pasts. I am really proud of this chapter, not only is it seeped in the subtle, (and sometimes not so subtle) implication that I love to write down, but I also only wrote it in two day, something I'm not doing again, BTW. I have decided that I will be updating on Wednesdays and Sundays, though I might sometimes update on Thursdays, but hopefully not often. Well anyway, If you've enjoyed this work and what to see more, then please follow, and if you have any comments, reviews, questions, and/or snide remarks, feel free to write them down in the reviews section. Have a bless'd day y'all_


	6. Intermission 1: A Name, Some clothes

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bioshock, nor anything related, just this story and its unique characters. _

_A/N: fair warning, some slightly mature content head, not a lot, and not that serious, but just a heads up._

Intermission 1: A Name, Some Clothes, and a Misunderstanding

I awoke to the sound of slight breathing above me, opening my eyes to find two softly glowing orbs directly above me. As my vision cleared, I saw Zeta face break out into a large grin as she one again gained the satisfaction that she was the first thing in the day I saw. To be quite honest, she scared the crap out of me the first time she did it, something that went dangerously close to hurting her fragile self-esteem, but now that I'm used to it, I quite enjoy waking up to such a beautiful sight.

As normal I pulled her down into a hug, and as normal as she withdrew her grin grew even bigger. Then, unusually, she leaned down and kissed me; that was odd since Zeta, of course, doesn't really understand the amorous nature of the gesture, in her mind it is nothing more than a way to mark her territory. She did, however, know I enjoyed the act, so she would do it if she wanted to please me, or wanted something herself. She was, however, not feeling particularly giving or desirous, but rather abnormally awash with the warm emotion that her addled mind, sadly, misattributes to friendship. After a while of enjoying each other's presence, I decided to test the waters a bit, "Can I get up now?" I asked playfully.

She seemed to see this as a challenge, she gave me a look of false hurt as she started shifting so that I would be unable to do just that, once she was done she changed her expression to one of playful defiance, daring me to escape from the cage of her limbs. Figuring, correctly, that with her far superior strength any escape attempt would be utterly futile, I relaxed, laughing a bit, "Alright, I give in. What do you want?" She studied me for a bit, wondering if I would attempt to leave, before plopping down into my lap. She than began bending over until our foreheads touched, and stayed there until I figured out exactly what she wanted…me.

Once she felt me figure it out, she grinned ravenously, before completing the gap between us, slamming her lips into mine. Once I had become completely distracted, she hooked her legs around mine, and flipped over so that I was above her, however her grip upon me became iron, insuring that I would not leave her, not that I was going to. I withdrew to look down upon her, becoming momentarily stunned by her beauty as she stared up at me, a strange innocence and playful mischievousness both radiating from her gaze. The reason for her mischievous look became apparent as her hands slid up my arms, there warmth magnificent against my cold skin, before resting on my shoulders, where she then started to send a telekinetic sheet vibrating across my back in all the ways she knew I liked. I decided to return the favor by moving my hands up to her neck, beginning to scratch softly in the way she had so intelligently named the "Neck Thing."

Her eyes brightened considerably and she gave an embarrassingly loud moan as she received double of the oddly large amount of pleasure she gained from the motion. Pressing my advantage I pulled her head up and starting kissing her once more. She hummed delightedly at my forwardness, the monotone sound evolving into an oddly exciting melody, which was her way of encouraging me on. Once again I noticed the barely detectable and mind-numbingly pleasurable smell, urging me to step up my actions, to concentrate solely on the fixating girl below me, to bring happiness to her, I was perfectly willing to oblige.

Our activities were rather suddenly interrupted by loud banging on the roof, followed by the curt voice of my annoyed charge echo down from the bunk above us, "Knock it off, or I'll make you both go back to sleep myself, your "fraternizing" is loud enough to wake the dead." I looked back down to see if my partner in crime's face was as red as mine, to find her looking temptingly up at me, eyes flicking purposefully to the couch room down the hall, obviously still wanting to continue our "Fraternizing" as Ashley put it. "Also kill the pheromones Zeta, you could smell them on the Surface." If possible, Zeta's face went redder than mine, and she suddenly became very worried at mention of the word _pheromone_, nervous as to my reaction of her using them on me.

I leaned down and kissed her to settle her fears, and her nervous expression was replaced with her tempting one, eyes once again drifting meaningfully in the direction the couch room lay. I shook my head, I wanted to know what was at the bottom of this wave of affection, and irked teenager really kills the mood anyways. This was not the first time she had displayed similar levels of affection, when the "Mystery of Jacob's eyes", as she called it, was particularly bothering her, she would try to recreate the situation where she first figured it out, i.e. feeling a large amount of affection towards me. But it was obviously to tell when that was her motivation, she would seem distracted as she tried to remember what my eyes make her feel. But this time she was very concentrated on me.

I whispered to her, not wanting to wake Ashley again, "All right, what's this all about?" Her temptingly adorable face faltered for a minute, and she bit her lip, nervous, before suddenly, she redoubled her efforts to persuade me to join her in the couch room. I shifted until I was in the same position she had trapped me in before, she raised her eyebrow almost contemptuously at my rather poor attempts to contain her, and she was of half a mind just to teleport us both there herself. After a small internal debate she relaxed, contented herself to play along and not do one of the thousands of things she could have done to get me off.

She became apprehensive suddenly, her face practically radiating meekness, and I realized something was bothering her. I eased off her and lied down beside her, and instantly her now freed left hand rose to my chest to start forming circles. It was a nervous tick of hers, one that came out only when she was very agitated. I could tell she wanted to say something, but was scared to say it.

"What is you want, Zeta. It's alright; you don't need to butter me up to tell me something." I could feel her courage surge through her, before being absolutely crushed by a massive wall of fear. Her hand clenched on my chest, and she looked at me pleadingly, urging me to understand her plight. It was then I understood, she wasn't feeling the typical timidness she often felt when she wanted something from me, but rather a very different fear, one far stronger then I had ever felt in her.

I brought her into my arms and I realized she was trembling, whatever was scaring her was something big, I couldn't even imagine what could cause a Big Sister to be so afraid, I whispered into her ear, "I'm here Zeta, don't worry about anything." The trembling started to subside, and I realized why she had been so affectionate, she had been using me to feel safe while she was preparing this, "It's alright, Zeta I'm here, what do you want?" She had flinched at the mention of her name, and then, steeling herself she trembled no more, as she slowly pulled away just enough to look me in the eye.

She looked at me, and fighting one last wave of fear, she mouthed, _name_.

()

They reappeared in the couch room in a swirl of purple smoke, she was so afraid that she had just barely managed to upright them in time. Once they had finished becoming real again she flung herself into her Jacob's arms, crying her eyes out, she was such a bad person, she wanted to have a name, and a name meant she would have a self, but Self Was Bad, very bad, self made people do bad things like hurt others, and cheat, and hate. Self had killed her city, and she wanted it. Why did she want it? Because her Jacob had it, that's why. But surely he must despise it, right. Her Jacob was the most selfless person she had ever met, even more than Mother had been.

Her Jacob still seemed astonished by her obviously horrible idea, and his next words proved it to her, "You _want_ a name?" Her face heated up, she knew how stupid a wish it was, and now he was obviously going give her something along the lines of what mother had always ranted about, to clear one of self one must first remove your own identity and your name carries that. She knew it was such a foolish idea. So her Jacob's next words surprised her even more, "As in you lack it?" He pulled her even closer into to their hug. "what is Zeta then?"

She hissed, as if that were a name, but it wasn't, _number, _she mouthed to him. That's all she was, a number, Gamma-Zeta, three-six. She hissed, she hated that, she hated that word! It reminded her that all she was was a number, a thing. A tool, a thing to be used by those who were above her, that's all she was! She buried her head into her Jacob's shoulder and sobbed. He treated her like a person, but that's all he could do, it was foolish to ask such a silly thing, he couldn't give her a name, an Identity. Nothing could, she didn't deserve it, she wasn't even human, just some _thing_. She was doomed to be a selfless thing, nothing more than a protector of others that have gone away. So without them, she was nothing, NOTHING! An empty shell where there should have been a person. But that was what was Good, wasn't it? That was what Mother had wanted.

She felt Jacob try to bring her eyes to his. He wanted to understand her sorrow; she could feel it. But she didn't want him to, she didn't want him to understand her horrible secret, he would stop treating her like she was something special, he would start treating her like everyone but her Little Sister had. She would be lonely again, even Sister would probably just use her. Everyone who knew her secret used her as a tool, to settle debts, or to make someone go to sleep, to bring more of her Little Sister down to Utopia.

"Open your eyes, tell me what's wrong." She shook her head, she didn't want him to become like that, everyone else had, so why wouldn't he. He raised his hand to my cheek and started gently caressing it, and his voice was soft, "I want to understand, help me to." She resistance balked, she couldn't resist that voice, so slowly she revealed her eyes to him. She felt his presence within her deepen, as she felt hers deepen into him, revealing his true emotions to her, as hers were as well. She heard him gasp, "Oh my sweet girl." She wanted to look away, so she would not feel the greed build up in him as the true extent of her vulnerability became clear, but she could not. She could not tear her eyes away from his deep brown stare. But it never came.

"I'm so sorry for what they have done to you" Sorry! Why was he sorry? He Should Have Been Awed by her Nigh-Perfect State, as Mother had called it, she didn't have an Identity. But here he was, comforting her as if it were a bad thing to not have one; even though it led to self. She was so confused, she wanted something that she knew was bad; she wanted an identity, and all that that entailed, even though that were all evil came from. And her Jacob wanted it for her, despite the fact he would gain so much more if she did not have it.

She broke and she once again sobbed into the shoulder of the person who confused her, yet was everything. He didn't make sense, He was kind and sweet and nice and funny and perfect, but he had self. He did not want to lose it, yet he did not want only the best for himself. If her Jacob had it, could it be so bad, but Mother had said her lack of self made her one step closer to a utopian, had been a blessing. Then why did she feel she feel so empty, why had she felt lacking when she had experienced Jacob's mind, as she explored the intricacies and depths of his Identity, it had thrilled her, he was just so…complex, it intrigued her.

But she had felt none such things when had been made to return to her own mind, and suddenly she had felt empty, but she felt less empty with her Jacob, he refined her, shaping her into something with every word, every touch…every time she claimed him again and again, she was becoming something defined where there once had been nothing but a shell. For once she was feeling something she did not…need to feel.

Protecting and loving her Little Sister was something…necessary, she needed the unconditional love they always gave their Big Sister, to hear them laugh and sing, and to crush any who made them cry. She always had found some reason to follow her orders to the letter; they always seemed so logical, so flawless, even when they hadn't been. But Jacob, her Jacob, was something else entirely, it had been her idea, he was _her_ friend, no had told her to make him one, he was hers because she wanted him to be.

She could feel his encouragement; he wanted her to become more, to become more than a tool. This baffled her more than anything else, if she was not but a tool, then he could not use her to his own advantage. Mother had said that Self made everyone afflicted with it do everything for themselves, but her Jacob had Self, and he was so willing to sacrifice, it didn't make sense, because it meant that Mother was wrong, but that was Impossible, that much she Knew. Jacob had to be a special case, he had to be. But he wasn't, now that she thought about it, Ashley was pretty selfless as well, and that one lab-coat that had been nice to her while they were turning her into a Big Sister, what had his name been…Daniel! Even _He_ had been pretty selfless in the end, his only goal had been to remove his once-daughter from Rapture. Maybe if all these people could be, then maybe she could be as well. She could devote her Self to her Jacob!

That settled it, she would do anything for her Jacob. She steeled herself, it would not be so bad, Jacob had proved that to her. She did not want a life of emptiness anymore, she wanted what her Jacob had. She wanted an Identity, a name, a Self. Slowly she looked up at him, and once again mouthed, _Name_. He grinned, he was so very happy for her, but he still hesitated, "Are you sure?" His smile was infectious, she had to grin back. She nodded, then mouthed, _like you. _He laughed and then went into deep thought, she whimpered slightly as his smile faded, but he was thinking of a name for her, so she guessed it was okay.

She hummed happily as his grin returned, and she pressed their bodies together and leaned her forehead against his own, she so enjoyed his touch. "I've got it!" he whispered to her, intimately, and she stared attentively at the eyes an inch for her own. "How do you like Coral?" Coral? As in the really pretty rock things that were outside? To her surprise, the more she thought about it, the more it fit, she really liked it.

"So what do you think?" he asked nervously, She loved it, and she gave him a quick reminder of her territory to show so. His face grew a bit warm, "Well you're certainly beautiful enough for it." Her heart swelled, and she brought him into another, quite longer, reminder.

She withdrew to stare at her Jacob. She was Coral, no that didn't seem to fit quite right. What was that word that Jacob used when he was talking about himself…I? It seemed almost like a bad word to her mind, but I…am…Coral. One of her headaches started, but she ignored it. After all, I am Coral, and I really like her…no, no, no, what was it…oh yeah, _my_ name. I stared adoringly at her, no, my Jacob. He had given me a name, and his actions had given me an Identity, I smashed my lips into his, and then shoved him onto the couch and crawled over him, mischievous glint shining in h…my eyes. I was going to thank him, all day long. And when Night falls, I'll give him one last thing.

My complete and utter trust.

()

I stared down at my hands, shaking nervously. Should I? I need to do this, I need to show him how much I trust him. My hands started their work again, unbuckling more and more of my armor. I needed to do this…but what if he is gonna hurt me, I'm going to be so vulnerable, my hands froze. I hated myself for that thought, and I forced my hands to continue their work on the buckles on my legs . My Jacob would never hurt me, he had seen me in my most vulnerable moment, and he had helped me up, he would never hurt me. My hands shed the leather around my torso and legs and feet. I needed to do this, He had given me a name, an identity, and I was going to repay him, by showing him how much I trust him. I shuddered as the first air to hit my skin in over seven years touched me as my hands slowly drew the zipper down; a strange warmth flowed through me as I thought on how my Jacob's touch would feel on the newly exposed skin, and my hands sped up and finally finished their controversial work

I stood there, bare, I wore nothing now. I was the physical epitome of vulnerability; the next person to walk through the door could hurt her, if she let him. She breathed deeply to calm the rush of panic she felt as she moved over to the two-bed, I silently thanked Mother that Ashley was already asleep, she would only make this more embarrassing. I sat there fidgeting as I waited to Jacob to reappear from his pre-bed raid on their supplies. An utterly horrendous thought, and even worse, irrefutable, thought occurred to me, what if he thought I was ugly. I looked worryingly across myself, my eyes fixating on the two odd mounds on my chest. Were those normal, Jacob didn't have them, and he was the only non-mutated person she had ever encountered, were they normal for girls, or were they some hideous mutation. They were that weren't they, they had to be, she could see no other point in them, they were just useless lumps of flesh.

Jacob just had to have picked that time to walk through the door way. He made a stunned sound, and instinctively I covered the horrible mounds, I didn't want Jacob to see those! I looked up to see him standing in the doorway, back facing me, why had he done that? His voice was strangely awkward and nervous; as if he was afraid I might try and hurt him.

"I'm sorry, were you…changing or s-something." Why was he scared, she/I would never hurt him, he was my Jacob. "I didn't mean to intrude or anything, uh… do you need some clothes?" What were clothes again…oh yeah, they were those odd things that most people wore even though it didn't protect them at all. Maybe it kept them warm? I seemed to remember some lab-coat saying that s/I had a higher body temperature than normal; so maybe that meant I kept warmer easier? Either way I was perfectly comfortable, so I gave a negative grunt.

This just seemed to confuse him, and he became even more nervous, it was an odd kind of nervous though, one I couldn't quite place. "So, uh… why aren't you, ummm…wearing anything…?" I grinned at that, and silently walked over to him; if he was going to look at me then I would have a little fun, "Uh…Coral?" She suddenly wrapped my arms around him, and made a barking sound in his ear, laughing as he jumped, before resting my chin on his shoulder.

"You a-aren't mad?" I shook my head, and made my confusion evident to him. "Because I walked…in on you doing…whatever it was that you were doing?" I would have thought it was obvious what I was doing, but perhaps he was a bit slower than sh/I had realized. I very suddenly flipped him over so that he was facing me, I caught him off guard apparently, and my hopes flared as him spent a bit longer than what was normal staring at my chest, maybe those mounds were normal after all, my hopes were dashed, however, as he jerked his vision to my eyes, looking like he was pointedly looking away from my chest, his face bright red, and feeling…something very complex…that was probably what disgust felt like.

I pushed my trust of him forwards proudly so he could see, he seemed…somewhat pleased, but also very distracted. I was officially getting put out by his confusing behavior, why wouldn't he just look at me! "Oh…trust…that's very nice, but…ok…ummm." He dropped off his sentence as I whimpered, prodding his arms up to meet my shoulders. I shivered at the contact, it did feel fantastic, and she lost herself for a bit as she pulled him closer nuzzling his check with he/mine. I stopped when I felt his apprehension grow, why didn't he want to cuddle, he always wanted to cuddle. She didn't understand why was my Jacob acting so funny? He thought I was ugly, didn't he, he thought I was ugly, I glared at him accusingly, "what…ugly…no…_definitely_, uh_…_not." HE DID, he so did, and now he didn't want to be near me. Oh, why did I do this, why, why, why? I try making myself smell nice for him, that seemed to work for a bit, but he jerk out of it, and continued his pointed examination of everything but me.

"ZETA WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT YOUR PHE, oh." Uh-oh, we both turned to the now very much awake, Sister, who was looking down from her top-bed with a very confused expression, Jacob's face became an almost amusing red and he started to desperately explain himself, "This isn't what it looks like…she didn't have any…and I just walked in…and she came…and then she…did stuff."

"Out" came her sudden reply,

"What?"

"girl thing, now get OUT!"

Jacob merely nodded, before quickly bolting out the door.

I rolled my eyes as the nervous wreak that had been Father before he had set his eyes on a naked Coral dashed out the room. I then rolled out the bed turning in midair to land on my feet, Father hated it when I did that, but it was oh so fun. I sat down on the bottom bunk and motioned for Coral to join me. I had to admit, Father did very well in picking a name for our newest companion. It fit her almost perfectly, Beautiful, bright, appearing hard yet quite fragile, heh, curvaceous.

As she sat down next to me leaned against me and start to work her hands in her odd little sign language, still didn't understand it but I could look at her mind, even if I could not enter it without danger. _"Sister, what should I do, Jacob thinks I'm ugly." _Where did she get that impression, she was anything but ugly, her skin was the color of marble, having never seen any light source for any amount of extended period of time, and almost in perfect condition, because an lack of exposer to the elements, and her healing factor, her face was well sculpted, and combined with her slightly overly-large eyes gave her a youthful and innocent look that mirrored her well on the inside. Her br…Focus, Ashley.  
"He doesn't think your ugly, Coral." I replied, a bit exasperated

"_Then why didn't he want to look at me or touch h/me, I gave myself to him and he didn't take it."_

"Well that's a rather complicated situation.  
_"YOU'RE LYING, he does think I'm hideous, you just don't want to tell me."_

"Trust me when I say his thoughts were most definitely not that you were ugly, but you see, it was a very delicate situation for him, he didn't want to offend you by looking at your nakedness."

"_Why would that offend me?" _

"It was the way he was raised, he was just trying to be respectful of your privacy."

"_But I don't want anything to be private from him; that was what I was trying to get at."_

I stroked her back, and despite her sadness she still managed to let out a purr at the touch, "That's okay, but just be gentle with him about that subject, he's always been a bit moral, and he doesn't quite understand what he had been feeling. He was just trying to not be rude."

She finally seemed to accept this, and satisfied with my progress, "Now let's get you into some clothing." She made a face at that, and I responded with, "I can guarantee that with the right outfit he will never take his eyes off you." That got her attention, and together we left for the wardrobe room

()

I sat nervously in my bunk, trying to cool off from the encounter with the very lovely Coral, I felt horrible, and confused, and rather silly, to be quite honest. I hadn't meant to upset her, I just hadn't known how to respond, and I had been quite afraid she had been trying to push _that_. I sighed, I hadn't wanted to have this day end so badly, I had wanted it to be good for her, but that, I don't know, looking back on it, of course she wouldn't understand modesty, but I hadn't thought of that….

I halted my internal self-beat up when I hear the footsteps of the two ladies returning from their excursion into the closet room. I looked up, and what I saw took my breath away. Coral was wearing a button up shirt, re-stitched to closely hug her slender frame, and she had a belt wrapped around the abdomen to press it even closer to her skin, and the sleeves had been cut off at the shoulder. Her pants had once been jeans, but most of the legs had been removed, so that they only came down to her mid thighs, and had been re-stitched as well so they followed the shape of her *ahem* backside quite closely. I stared for a while before I realized that Coral was standing there nervously, awaiting my approval of her new garb.

"It looks wonderful, Coral," I stated, a bit breathlessly, and she nervous expression change to a beaming grin, "But why exactly is it so…umm…open, not that I don't mind" I added quickly. She walked up to me and put my hand on her stomach, and I could feel the heat though the cloth. Of course, it was to help her stay cool, not to, well…uh, never mind. She climbed into the bunk with me and together we laid down. As she snuggled up to me, I realized just how hot she was, she must have been in 100's, I looked up in concern, hoping that this was normal, and I found that she carried a similar expression, realizing how cold I was.

"Is this normal?" she nodded, before nodding towards me, asking the same, "Yes, it's a splice." She nodded, before wiggling even closer to me, apparently quite enjoying the coolness of my skin.

_A/N normally I would write something, but right now its 30 minutes past the time I normally go to bed and I have been working on finishing this chapter since 1:00 and I am tired, please follow if you enjoyed this story, and send me any comments, reviews, critiques, questions, and/or snide remarks I will be happy to respond as soon as I get some sleep. Have a bless'd night y'all._


	7. Arc 2: Moving on: Ch 7 Packing up

_Disclaimer, I do not own Bioshock or any related items, blah, blah, blah. I really need to start making these clever…_

Ch. 7: Packing up

It almost felt weird, being in my armor again after wearing nothing but those insubstantial cloths for a couple of dimmings, I even messed up a couple of my jumps! But after I had become used to it, it felt like a second skin again and I regained my balance. I let myself smile, my glow becoming soft amber, exploring my city is so much fun! I had forgotten how much I liked jumping and flipping from wall to window to rafter, Why hadn't I done this more before I met my Jacob. Oh yeah, because I had been lonely and sad. My happy mood shrunk a bit as she remembered those sad times, when the city seemed so still, but now the streets echo with his footsteps and it is not lonely or dead, but alive and freeing.

I had to admit I was showing off for my Jacob, the first thing he had seen my acrobatics as we were leaving the hidey hole had a lamp post knock me out of the air, and I wanted to prove to him that I was good at this. I landed next to him, wanting him to see clearly my next stunt. I ran off toward a nearby lamppost, swinging around it before leaping higher off the other side towards a taller building to my right. Landing on a windowsill, I preceded to hop up to a window sill above me, before leaping off towards the rafters above me, using my momentum to flip onto it. Continuing the motion, I back flipped past the next rafter, only to hook it with my legs at the last moment. I hung down from my legs, looking expectantly at my Jacob for his opinion of my performance.

"Impressive, Coral, but is that a bit dangerous? You could break something." I huffed, before unhooking my legs, flipping in midair and landing on the floor in a crouch. Turing to look at my shocked friend, I gestured to myself to show that I was perfectly alright.

"Coral, _please _don't do that," he said breathlessly, "You scared me, what if you had broken something!" I whimpered, I didn't mean to scare him, but despite myself I couldn't help but feel some satisfaction from his concern. I walked over and hugged him, cooing assuredly, before stepping back and kneeling. I raised my hand and hit the center of my low-leg with a force that would have shattered a metal rod. The metal of my boot rung out and dented, a testament to the strength of the blow, but my hand bounced harmlessly of the leg underneath. I looked at him pointedly hoping he'd get the picture, adding a mental twitch that straightened out the metal of my boot, to help bet my unnaturalness across.

"Okay I get it, strong bones, but still it worries me." I hugged him again reassuringly, before returning to my perch in the rafters a less dangerous way. I was more than shocked to see him follow me, in a more climb-y way sure, but still appealingly athletic. I watched with a bit of shock as he leapt the good distance up to the rafters, It wasn't anywhere near a leap a Big Sister could do but it was still impressive. I forget sometimes that he is still ADAMed, however little.

Noticing my concern as he easily navigated the web of metal, he replied, "Big Sisters aren't the only ones who know how to "Fly." I smiled at his use of the common rumor among the monsters about the Sisters ability to move so quickly. He seemed well enough at ease, so I didn't press the matter, besides I was happy at his proximity and it was nice to know I wouldn't have to slow down too much for him.

"Smell any food we could use?"

…

I laughed to myself as my companion visor shifted from amber to a subdued red, before a subtle hissing came as she tried to inconspicuously depressurize her helmet, she then shook her head no.  
"Okay then, we should move on," I replied, "While we're up here check on the structural integrity of the roof, if you see and warping or large ruptures let me know." She nodded, and we continued through the rafters toward the outer edge of what was what I considered my territory.

I pulled out my map of the area, looking for at the buildings I had cleared out of supplies, and sighed, I had quite literally looted every single building unoccupied within a decent walking distance. I was tempted to go to some of the occupied ones, with my new companion taking on a two or three of those…things, could be plausible… No, a fool's errand, even with her help, it would still very dangerous for a relatively low gain. Most occupied buildings, of course, had people living in it before the Depravation, so they tend not to have much in the way of food or water.

Coral give a soft screech to get my attention, looking up I asked, "Food or damage?" She held up one finger, I nodded, "Show me." She leapt over to the next rafter with me closely following behind. When we reached our destination, I stopped in shock,

"No, definitely not." She looked me confused, so I clarified, "Those buildings were the headquarters of a spliced up street gang called the Demons, they controlled almost all the ADAM in this area and they rationed it well, so they were pretty well set when the Depravation hit, they managed to last almost a half a year after everyone else in the area were dead or changed. So when the supplies ran out, there was enough ADAM in their system that most of their bodies were able to survive the transition." She was looking as if to say 'so what?' "So What? They're the reason why there was so little in this area who survived the change, because they hoarded it all for themselves, this is not just four or five Changed, this is more like thirty or forty." She still seemed unfazed by this, so once more I continued, "Have you ever fought Changed, Coral. They're made entirely of ADAM cells having completely taken over the original body, capable of self-replication and reconfiguration. You chop a hand off, it grows claws, you stab one though the heart, and it reconfigures another lump of flesh into another one, you shoot it one in the head and it transitions basic functions to the spine, or it spreads it across the nerves. You're suggesting fighting a whole Hoard of these things." I was yelling at this point, her apparent disbelieve of her inevitable death pushing me over the edge. I immediately regretted it as her visor flicked and darkened, leaving a black screen as she lowered her head.

I sighed, I hadn't meant to raise my voice. I sat down on the rafter next to her, wrapping an arm around the sullen teenager, and spoke in a calm voice, "I'm sorry I yelled at you, but I wanted to stress to you how utterly dangerous that idea would be, that action _would_ result in your death, and no amount of food is worth that. You are far dearer than any of that, my beautiful reef." Her porthole shifted to amber at my nickname for her and she buried it into my chest.

Once the touching moment was done, I was back to business, and we started on our way back, dangerously low on supplies. "I noticed… several warps and…leaks on our way…here." I called out to her, still jumping from metal bar to metal bar, "That and with the severe lack of food, we're going to have to move on."

She stopped so suddenly I was sure she was going to fall, she then turned to look at me, helmet visor black with despair, I looked at her funny, "You're coming with us, of course." Her helmet changed to a dull red, a shade probably matched by her cheeks. Together we returned home to Ashley to tell her the news of our moving.

Eventually she stopped on a thicker than normal beam and looked back at me, leaning against a vertical support beam. She watched as I made my way over to her, her visor steadily growing pink. Figuring she had something not incredibly wise in mind I jumped over rafter a good several yards away from her to help discourage any foolish ideas, it didn't work. I watched, helpless enthralled, as her helmet fell to the floor below and she sauntered towards me, the rest of her armor slowly following her helmet, until, thankfully, she was wearing nothing but her regular clothes. She stopped in front of me with her hands on my hips, staring deeply into my eyes, smiling temptingly.

…

He had been so graceful, so amazingly appealing as he had weaved his way towards me, I had to reward, I had to make sure to convince him to stay with me always. He was mine, but surely he did not feel so much of what I feel, I had to convince him, how else would I keep such a perfect being?

I watched as my Jacob looked nervously over the edge, drawing an unconscious whimper as his eyes left mine, "Are you sure this is the best place for this, we're rather high…" I nuzzled his neck reassuringly and kicked off a piece of rubble, only to grab it and safely return to its previous position, proving to him we'd be perfectly safe, though he still looked uneasy for some reason, "I still don't think this is a good idea." I smiled into his neck; that was what made it exciting!

Pressing him into the support behind him, my lips quickly followed as my hands slowly climbed on his arms, soothingly pinching and pulling the skin as I rolled up his leather-enforced sleeves. As he stated to forget where exactly he was, he start to get more into it, lips pressing excitedly against mine and hands moving to start massaging my sides, enticing an pleased hum out of me, which quickly became an encouraging tune as I spelled out my feelings in notes, Mother I forgot how sensitive my sides were.

I felt his growing dominance and tried to fight it, moving my hands up and down his back, pressing everywhere he like at once. Given the current situation I thought it be better if I stay the more rational, not to mention he rarely let me, but my defense crumbled as he tried a new tactic, his lips left mine, and slowly trialed down to my neck, causing my tune to speed up, oh more! He happily complied to my silent command, first trailing kisses along my the left side of my neck before doubling back and going across the right, my tune started to become more and more disrupted by moans. Once again he retraced his kisses and stared down my neck once again, stopping in the V of the top-cloth before redoubling his efforts, I had to stop the song at that point; I couldn't concentrate enough to keep it going.

I gritted my teeth as it became harder and harder to contain the excite-smell, if I let that go I would completely lose it under his administrations, hold it, hold it, hold…it, can't hold it. I shuddered as his hands suddenly ran up and down my back, the sudden change distracting me long enough to shatter what little concentration was left. I moaned loudly as I felt the excite-smell rush out of my body, and as Jacob redoubled his efforts to please his Coral. His, I am his, completely his, completely and totally his, I loved every second of it. Jacob, more, more, more, more, MORE!

I didn't have many coherent thoughts for a while after that

()

Heartbeat, his heart was speeding up, that meant he was waking. My eyes flickered open and I looked confused around me, uncertain as to where I was, before remembering my pre-sleep actions. I looked down to find I lying on top of my best friend, and I smiled as I noticed my hand in his and his arm around me. Slowly extricating myself, I took up my usual morning residence, sitting atop his chest looking down. I smiled as I saw his indescribable brown eyes slowly open and a smile grew on his face as he looked into my eyes, reaching up he pulled me into a short yet momentous kiss. That kiss was worth more than the entirety of the previous dark-time's exchange, for that kiss was a promise, a promise from a perfect being that he would deign to be mine for yet another day, a promise that he would not yet leave me.

I looked down upon this perfect figure, If only there was a word adequate enough to describe my feelings towards him, and then I could tell it to him over and over and over, and perhaps use it to convince him to stay with me forever. For the first time I felt a true dislike well up in me for the Family, if I could speak, I would describe in detail everything I felt for my Jacob and perhaps convince him to stay with me forever. But I could not, and it was _their_ fault. So instead I rested my forehead against his and tentatively pushed towards him every good feeling I had ever felt for him, and hoping against hope that it might extend his time with me, before he would throw away, like everyone else has . He seemed surprised, why? It was the obvious thing that I needed him…

He was far the more ambiguous.

…

I blinked as Coral showed her complete feelings for me, to me. She felt like she need to keep me entertained? I sighed at her, she could be so utterly blind at time, though I guess I couldn't blame her for her inferiority complex. I smiled as I slowly stood up, gathering her into my arms, before pushing my feelings for her out to the front, raising my hand to cup her cheeks, "I believe we are on far closer than you realize." Her eyes brightened, before darkening considerably and she looked away, apparently finding it cruel to lie to her in such a way. "This isn't a lie, my beautiful reef" She looked at me angrily, deeply hurt that I would try and trick her in such a horrid way.

I sighed, trying to find another way to convince the angst-y teenager that I was not fooling her, before once again pushing my feelings to her, her eyes became only redder, before she mouthed _LIAR!_ She attempted to storm off, but I grabbed her arm before she could get far. She turned in anger, eye burning red before locking eyes with me, and her rage quickly melted to sorrow, as all her self-hatred and anxiety crashed upon her.

She hung her head, using her hair to obscure her face, finally she looked at me and mouthed, _How…truth?_ I felt so sorry for my fragile reef, and I dragged her unwillingly into a hug. She started to cry, quickly descending into hysterics she started thumping me in the chest, silently screaming _HOW! HOW! HOW!_

I just held her patiently waiting for her to finally calm down, and once seeing she was done letting out her anxiety, I whispered into her ear with as much conviction that I could muster, "Because you are the most extraordinary girl I have ever met, Coral, You are fascinating, and intriguing, and your smile is the most beautiful in the world. You are happy and appreciative and kind and caring. You are selfless and sweet and funny. You are the dearest thing in the world to me, Coral," I reached down and clasped her hand, bringing it to eye level for her to see, "and I will never abandon you, I would sooner die. You are my life Coral, I could not live without you" I drew back to watch her reaction, still holding her hand. I smiled as I felt the sheer disbelieving joy slowly sink in. She mouthed on word, _Forever? _ "Forever." I replied. I let that sink in, and she just looked at me, eyes shimmering with tears of joy. Mutely She jumped off, landing the some-odd-thirty feet below perfect and unharmed, she then gentle lowered me behind her, setting me down once again just in front of her.

I had no warning as she leapt on to me, her lithe arms and legs, wrapping around me with very little hope of dislodgment. Once properly secured she then proceeded to ravenously devour my face beneath her kisses. I once again noticed how extraordinarily light she was without her armor, she couldn't have been more than 85 pounds. Once she had covered every square inch on my face, she looked at me, mouthing _forever…mine!_ I laughed as she laid her head on my shoulder, making no move to release from her hug, "Are you going to make you carry you back?" She laughed her strange yet beautiful laugh before nodding, "Well what about your armor?" tilting my head towards the pile of discarded leather and metal. With a small flick of her wrist she had it levitating behind us. "Well, you just think of everything don't you?" She let out an amused noise, before resting her head on my shoulder again.

()

I deposited the sleeping from of my little reef on our bed, before turning to my curiously watching charge. She quirked an eyebrow at my happy glow, "So what did you find that put you in a good mood?"

I tore my gaze away from the sleeping girl, before signing "Nothing really supplies wise, a few, irrelevant scraps of food here and there. Damage wise, this place is coming down, soon."

Ashley pursed her lips, "So that means we're moving aren't we."

I nodded

"It's such a shame, we've spent so long here, this is the closest place to a home we've ever had."

"Yeah I know."

"So if you've found nothing, then why are you so happy?"  
"I finally managed to convince Coral that she doesn't need to earn my love." Once again I cast a glance at the her peaceful form, smiling slightly at she made a two syllable noise that would have probably been my name if she could talk.

"I guess that's why y'all were late. So what did she give you for this stunning revelation?"  
"A hug all the way home, now if you excuse me, I just carried an 80 pound girl up 5 flights of stairs, So I'm going to join her in bed.

I watch as Father and Coral slept soundly in each other's arms, they were certainly a cute couple, and they both deserved each other, but I could help but feel a bit left out. I decided to ignore the feeling for now, they just had a major breakthrough in their relationship, so they can be as lovey-dovey as they want. I just hope this all ends well, though I don't really see that happening, this _is _Rapture after all.

_A/N Just barely made this one in time, sorry about the shorter length than normal (Yeah _only_ 3,100 words), I didn't really know what to do with this chapter, I have the arc only thinly planned out, so I'm probably going to struggle a bit with making them my normal length. Sneak preview of this Arc: Some actual action, a Big Daddy, and what happens when you combine Coral and a bottle of wine. If you want to see more of this series please click follow, I would really appreciate, and it drives off the feeling of mild oh-what's-the-point, that I constantly experience when doing something like this. If you have something to say feel free to review or PM me, I love to hear from y'all. Have a bless'd day y'all._


	8. Chapter 8: The Journey

_A/N: I am so sorry y'all, truly I am, First my computer broke, and then we spent two weeks getting a new one, and then I had Band camp, and then I had to put Word on my computer and then I had to go back to school and then I procrastinated, and I am so terribly sorry for my absence. What make it's even worse is that I'm going to have to extend writing time to a set five days. I simply don't have the time with school back on to write a chapter twice a week. I assure you that I will not give up on this story, though school will come first, so there might be the occasional delay. Anyway back, finally, to the story _

Disclaimer: I do not own Bioshock, or anything related, just my characters.

Chapter 8. The Journey

I sat resolutely in my watch. It had been eight dimmings since we had left Old-home. I was strangely sad to leave Old-home, it had so many good memories of my Jacob and Sister and me. Though I was back in my armor, so that was good, and I was able to protect my Jacob and Sister for the first time, so that was good as well. Protecting was rewarding, the fact that my family had lived another light-time on my watch was so invigorating and it made me so very happy. And so I watched, Jacob wanted to watch earlier, but I didn't let him. It's my job, I protect them, not the other way around, that's silly, and dangerous, and he might get hurt. He needed to sleep too, I didn't, and so I watched.

Despite my Alertness I… what had my Jacob called it? Yarn? Yeah I think that's it, I yarned. I really just wanted to go back and slip in with my Jacob, it would be nice and warm…NO! I was not tired, I didn't need to sleep, I was just not…used to not sleeping…that's all, I wasn't tired, I _was not_ tired. I _need _to watch, if I didn't watch then My Jacob would be in danger, I couldn't let that, I had to not sleep, I don't need sleep, I have to watch.

I felt my eyes drawn to his sleeping form, and I felt a smile form on my face and my light become amber. My Jacob always looked so peaceful when he's sleeping. Except… he looked lonely now… his arm was by his side, holding empty air, and he was frowning… I didn't like my Jacob frowning, I yarned again…maybe if I just lay down with him for a little…no, I must watch, I must watch, I have to watch, and protect her… no, my Family, I have to, I have to. I turned around; I couldn't watch if I was looking at Jacob, and I need to watch, if I don't then they'll hurt her Litt… My Jacob, yeah; need to watch, need to protect.

()

I heard him getting up, He shouldn't be getting up now, it was too early for him to be getting up, he was harder to protect when he was up. I heard him as he came to sit behind me, and hummed an admonishment, it was too early for him, he should still be sleeping, It was harder to protect her him if he wasn't. He moved his legs around me, gentle forcing me into his lap as his arms encircled my waist, when he was done he whispered into my ear, "I'm sorry dear, but I couldn't sleep. I was too lonely. I thought I might as well make myself useful and keep you company." He needed to go back to sleep, she might… he might wander off and she couldn't protect him then, I growled my displeasure, and his arms shot off me and I slid off his lap. He looked at me in surprise, I pointed firmly at his bed, and his eyes became hurt and more than a little concerned "I miss you, little reef… you've been kinda distant this past week, and I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since you completely took over watch duty, and your acting very odd, I just wanted to know your alright"

I didn't need his affection right now, I needed to be alert, I need to watch, so I could protect him, didn't he get that? "I'm proud of you for your help, but we're not Little Sisters, we don't need your twenty-four hour surveillance, we're strong enough to be able for you to relax a bit." But…But they needed protecting, she couldn't relax, if-if she relaxed something might hurt him. I couldn't allow that to happen, I needed to be always watching, in fact why wasn't she watching right now? Something could be sneaking up on them right now! I need to watch… to always watch… they would be in danger if she didn't, she can't allow that. She couldn't allow her little ones to be in danger! She stood up looking wildly around for any danger to her Little Sisters.

Two things encircled her waist, pulling her down, NO! No, she had to fight back; she had to protect her Little Sisters from this monster, she broke free and extended her needle, Zeta would always protect her Little Sisters! Something grabbed her hand, she tried to yank it free but it wouldn't let go. She was about to pull it off its feet, when it said something, something important… what was it? "Coral, relax!" Coral? Coral…Coral, why was that important, "Coral, snap out of it!" Coral…Jacob? Jacob!

I shook my head, clearing the last fragments of the live dream from my mind. I found myself standing in front of my very concerned Jacob. "Coral, Coral, are you all right?" I am not alright! I tried to hurt my Jacob! Why did I do that? I was a bad protector, I had tried to hurt him, is he going to hate me now? To my surprise he pulled me into a hug, how did he trust me? I can't even trust myself! He gently moved my head so my ear was against his chest, and I immediately began to relax. His heartbeat is steady, he's safe, I buried myself in his chest, why had I attacked him?

Luckily he answered for me, "You need to relax more dear, if you keep relying on your Protector instincts too much then they'll consume you, and you were made to protect things from men, not the other way around." I nodded into his chest, it made sense, but, but she couldn't relax! She had to protect Jacob an… "Just relax my beautiful reef." His heartbeat felt good against my head. There is nothing better than that sound, it was strong and steady and firm. I felt Jacob as he gently pulled me to sit back down, and I curled up in his lap. I guess he was right, if it was dangerous for him if I pushed myself then I would not. Perhaps I really was tired.

I snuggled up against his familiar curves; unconsciously letting out a purr as I settled into place. I could hear his heartbeat, and that relaxed me a great deal, it was calm, and that meant he was safe, there was nothing more relaxing than knowing that my Jacob was safe… and Sister of course… but mainly Jacob. I didn't protest as he unclasped my helmet, and the second it was off he began to work on the Neck Thing. I lost myself in him, as I so loved to; I was supposed to be doing something right? Mmm…Jacob could handle it, right now I was happy., He looked regretfully at me, "I worried for you, you're not acting yourself, you mustn't let your become obsessed like this, it's dangerous for us all."

He was right, maybe I could rela-NO! I had to protect him! He would be in danger if I wasn't awake! I had to stay…to stay…Mmm, behind the ears felt very good. "I can take care of the watch, if anything comes I'll wake you up in a second." He told me quietly, his voice kind and soft, I giggled slightly as I felt his voice against my check…that sounded quite nice actually, and he _could_ defend himself if he had to…I guess it might be alright if I slept for just a bit…but first… I lazily drew myself to look him in the eye. His eyes were so pretty, and I drew his lips to mine and kissed him deeply, before withdrawing to study his beautiful face, noticing all the tiny details it acquired throughout the day, it was o-so interesting to look at how his day had changed his face. I frowned as I noticed his frown-wrinkle had deepened more than usual, I rubbed it guilty, I was causing this; I was worrying him. I didn't like that.

I broke off and began to nuzzle his cheek with my own before withdrawing sharply. His cheek had poked me! I reached up with my hand to explore the offending skin, and to my surprise it really was pokey. I looked at him, my eyes lighting with curiosity, why was that? He looked relieved and laughed, I love that laugh, and he looked at me as if I was the greatest thing in the world, and I smiled and resisted the urge to kiss him again, after all he had to tell me why his cheeks were prickly.

"I guess you're asking why my cheek feels funny aren't you?" I nodded, I really was quite curious now, and I giggled, now that I was used to it, it kinda tickled and I just kept wanting to stroke it. "Well it's because I haven't had time to shave since we left, and I'm starting to grow a beard." Oooh that's where face-hair came from, she had always wondered that. Well he should keep doing that thing he said, because, even though it tickled, I didn't really like it. I made my opinion perfectly clear by lobbing off the offending hair. Satisfied that there would no longer be cheek poking I returned to cuddling up against him, letting his steady safe-heart lull me to sleep.

()

I sat there, rubbing my newly smoothened cheek, I wished I had known she could do that. I could have saved a lot of pain this last month; I had never been all that good at shaving. I look down at the thin girl gently resting in my lap and couldn't help but smile; she was by far the best thing in my life, and I loved her dearly. Absently I ran my fingers through her very dirty hair, searching for signs for its true color, We had tried washing it, several times actually, but the years of dirt proved too resistant for a simple dunking to remove. It occurred to me that she might be able to be convinced to remove the dirt herself, particularly if I showed interest in its actual color. I wouldn't be lying either, I actually was _very _interested, because it would help to settle a distinct possibility.

Elizabeth had a very distinct hair color, and if Coral shared that, then…. It seemed very foolish to hope for it though… Ashley had been right, it was unlikely, not many Big Sisters survived Delta's rampage, and probably a few more went insane without their Little Sisters. Statically, she was probably dead.

I balked at that, the girl I had first loved, had devoted my life, and potential sanity, to, and almost casually I had resigned her to lost… though the opposite could potentially be worse, if she wasn't Coral yet still alive, then the possibility of a meeting between them… I would have to choose, and my choice would be between two unstable powerhouse teenagers that both had an undying affection for me. What's worse would be I would have to choose Coral…. I loved Elizabeth, but I _love _Coral. I spliced to find Elizabeth, knowing the risks, but also knowing that I shouldn't have been in any real danger, but I would jump into the sea to be crushed if Coral would only love me if I did so.

But if Coral was Elizabeth… that would be the best thing that had and would ever happen to me, except perhaps leaving this forsaken place. The problem however, would be how to prove it. It was obvious that whoever made her had intentionally removed all link she had to the past, including, surprisingly enough, much of her time as a Little Sister, as well as a significant portion of reality. They had wanted to remove their name and with it their Identity, and they had succeeded. I knew first hand of the effectiveness of ADAM borne conditioning, and memory erasing was almost trivial with Little Sisters.

It sickened me to realize just how much control over the Big Sister the scientists who made her would have had, and instinctively I huddled the innocent girl to me, as if to protect her from the evil they almost had to have inflicted on her. The sleeping girl murmured her pleasure at the sudden warmth, and shifted to take advantage of her new position. I remembered with horror her reaction when I had asked her to remove her armor; that definitely had some bad memories attached to it. I winced, it was even worse then that, now that I think about it, it was a trigger.

The true horror dawned on me, her naïve innocence was a façade, a tool to control a naturally unruly subject. And it was a veil, one that could be cruelly drawn back to show her sheltered mind the awful truth of her actions, that she was not dancing and playing, but maiming and killing. It was trigger to make her venerable and complacent both physically and mentally, forced to accept whatever treatment they push onto her. It was no wonder she had such an inferiority complex and trust issues. I kissed the top of her head, and whispered into her ear, "I will never take advantage of you." She twisted in response, ending up with her ear against my chest, and a large smile growing across her face. I knew she wouldn't hear it, at least not consciously, but I needed to reassure her as well as myself. I now had had access to a way to allow me to do whatever I wanted to do to her, and I wanted to make sure as soon as possible that I would not be tempted to use it. I had promised her now, and I wouldn't break a promise to her if I was at the end of a gun.

()

_I was in _His_ arms, I was safe, I was Free./_

They _took me, and _They_ gave me a Little chain and a veil. I couldn't see very well, _They_ gave me a _Daddy_ to replace the one I had lost, and I was safe, and then _He_ found me again, and I was Content/_

They _took me away from _Him _again, _They_ gave me Big chains, _They_ took away her name and her past, but instead gave her purpose, and _They_ took away some of her veil, but instead _They_ put a chain around her head. And She was Sad/_

_Her chains moved and she was moved by them, but she didn't care, because she had a purpose, she had to protect her _Sisters, _The chains helped her, so She didn't Care/_

_But there were times where she had to care, because her chains made her do things that she did not like, and made her bow to _Them, _and_ They _would tear off her veil._ _She did not like these times, they made her hurt, they made her cry, they made her know She was Nothing/ _

_Some of _Them_ would just use her chains like a puppet and then leave her, Some of _Them_ used her veil, and took pleasure in their deception, She once thought one had truly meant it, but he too just used her in the end. She hated them, she hated them all, but the chain around her head prevented her from acting on it. She was Confused/_

_Then everyone was gone, and she was all alone, her _Sisters_, her _Mother, _her _Daddies, _even _They _had finally left,_ _they had all left her to her chains, which now were without purpose, and yet still restricted her. She was Alone/_

_And then she found _Him _again/_

_And he sees her chains, but he does not use them. _He _gave me a name, and he gives me love, and he say I am not nothing, and he breaks my chains so I can be free again, I was Loved/_

_I am in _His _arms, I am safe, I am happy._

()

I felt a sharp nudge in my chest. Opening my eyes, I saw Father standing there, carrying a sleeping Coral bridal style. He held her a bit closer then was strictly necessary, and the look in his eye told me he had figured out things meant to hide forever in the dark of Sister's mind, where she could not remember them. I was glad he had finally managed to get her to sleep though, she had been coming dangerously close to going off the deep end again, unfortunately if that meant what I thought it meant than, then…

"I need you to take watch for the rest of the night." Yep. I put up a mild amount of protest, which was quickly overruled, and thus I found myself at the edge of our little camp. I really hated watch duty, It gave one a great amount of time for one to do nothing but think, and me and deep thinking never really got along very well, since it seemed that my mind seemed to only want to ever think about was how Beta would shout horrible abuses at me, beating me to prove her point, or how Gamma would cut me, giggling like a manic, or how Alpha would stare at me, and anything else that moved, with unhidden lust, slowly and subtly tampering with my head, or how Delta would sit there looking on as she did nothing to stop the others, sometimes pressured to join in their cruel games at my expense. Unable to sleep for day on end, being too shell-shocked, or it being kept up by things that I was young to understand, or to fearful that I might awake to see Gamma with a knife, or a pen, or a sliver of wood, or anything else. I… NO, just can't think about it, don't think about it. Don't think about it.

()

RED RED WHERE ARE MY DAUGHTERS EVERYTHING RED NEED TO KEEP SAFE WHERE ARE THEY THE KILLS MUST HAVE STOLEN THEM WOULD UNZIP KILLS. AAGGGGGGGGGRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. WHERE ARE THEY NEED TO FIND THEM WHERE ARE DAUGHTER, RED RED RED RED MEANS UNZIP UNZIP EVERTHING THAT HURT DAUGHTERS WHERE ARE KILLS NEEDED TO HURT KILLS NEEDED TO UNZIP KILLS RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED. Yellow… what was smell, Daughter Smell, Found daughter! Needed to find daughter. Daughter in Danger! RED, DAUGHTER NEEDED HELP, KILLS WILL HAVE HURT DAUGHTER, UNZIP! UNZIP!

…

His heart began to speed up, time to not sleep, I opened my eyes to see his face, I smiled, but I let it fade, why was I not protecting him, Why was I not watching him and…. I looked sharply at Sister's bed. It was empty, I shot up, searching desperately around but she wasn't there. I began to lose hope, I had lost her, I had lost my only family. It was my fault. My fault, I had slept, I shouldn't have slept, I didn't need to sleep, why had I slept? I turned to face Jacob, who has looking at me confused, and I remembered last night. HE was why I slept, HE said he would watch! HE lied! He LIED TO ME, and now Sister was gone, IT ALL HIS FAULT, my glow was becoming red, and I began to advance towards him, IT WAS HIS FAULT!

"Coral calm down." SHE WOULD NOT CALM DOWN, HE HAD CAUSED SISTER TO BE LOST SHE WOULD MOST CERTAINLY NOT CALM DOWN!

He repeated himself, this time his tone was authoritative and firm, "Coral, Calm Down." Instantly I lost my anger, and my glowed turn back to gold. I lowered my head submissively. Yes Sir. He spoke again, still in that amazing voice, and he stepped closer, "Let me explain myself." I looked up at shyly at him, and let out an apologetic hum. He finished his walk towards me, and put a hand on my shoulder, "Good Girl" I couldn't contain a purr as those words flooded my being, I _really_ like him talking like this. "I set Ashley to watch duty around about four hours ago. We take watches in shifts, so we don't have to stay awake all night." But that means that Sister would be in danger with nobody watching her! "She can handle herself, This is going to be how this works though, I am clear?" I nodded enthusiastically, I would do anything to please him right now, seeing my reaction, he smiled, and blood-heat flowed through me. I rushed forward and pulled him onto the bed, already kissing him on the way down. He landed on top of me on the bouncy mattress and he pulled out looking very confused, "What about Ashley?" I leaned up into his lips, fanatically pulling his head closer to mine, Sister could live without us for a little longer but right now, I was his Coral. And I wanted him.

…

AAGGGGGRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"Daddy?"

_A/N Cliffhanger! Well anyway I am really sorry for my absence. I hope y'all continue to support the story, if you have something to say, feel free to PM or review, I will certainly answer them from now on. Please if you liked this story and wanted to see more of it, Follow and Favorite, every new person I get makes me work faster, (or want to at least)Have a blessed day y'all._


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